Good Cop, Bad Cop: Kid And Crona's Most Challenging Case?
by sleepy-emo
Summary: A serial murderer is plaguing Death City and the Chief of Police puts his two best detectives on the case; Detective Inspector Kid De'Ath and DCI Crona Makenshi. Problem is they haven't worked together since Kid called off both their partnership and their relationship. Now they're forced back together and the past inevitably gets dragged up more than the case. AU
1. Prologue

**Hey guys :D This is something I've been working on for a while and just haven't uploaded because I'm a bit rubbish haha Tris PhantomEvans finally convinced me to upload it before it was finished about two months ago and I was going to but then I got busy. Anyway...**

**This is a story between Kid and Crona. In this story Crona is a guy (I just can't see him as a girl) but if you're on the 'Crona is female' side of the fence just switch the 'he's' to 'she's' and stuff. I'm really happy with how this turned out and I hope you guys enjoy it too. Ps for smut turn to Chapter 10 :3**

Dead of night rain pounded the streets of Death City, named thus because of the vast number of murders, muggings and other fatal misdemeanours, and the familiar sound of sirens filled the streets. Five police cars sped down empty roads, lights flashing and sirens blearing, before screeching to a halt outside a block of flats in one of the slightly better areas of town. The flats were as non-descript as any of the others aside from the flock of policemen, doctors and forensic anthropologists filtering inside.

The driver's side door of one of the cars opened and Detective Inspector Shina Igami De'Ath (known as Kid to his friends) stepped out. He rubbed his tired eyes and sighed as the rain began to attack him; it was way too early for this shit. He had been in the middle of a very deep sleep when he had gotten the phone call saying that he needed to be down town immediately. It wasn't that he was annoyed to be called out of bed in the middle of the night to do his job but he hadn't had a good night's sleep in weeks and there was a part of him that wished it could have waited till the morning.

He slammed the car door closed and heaved himself up the stairs to the flat's entrance. By the time he reached the door he was already soaked through to the skin. He wiped his sopping fringe out of his eyes and went inside. Almost as soon as he crossed the threshold an arm shot out, stopping him in his tracks.

"I'm sorry Sir but I'm afraid there has been an incident here. I'm going to have to ask you to leave." a terrified looking young policeman said. Kid said nothing but raised an eyebrow and slipped a hand into the inside pocket of his jacket. He pulled out his badge and flashed it at the young policeman, who almost dropped the notebook he had been writing in in surprise. "I'm so sorry Detective Inspector, I didn't recognise you."

"It's quite alright," Kid replied coolly, putting his badge away. "now if you can point me in the direction of Dr Nakatsukasa please."

"Second floor, third door on the right Sir." the policeman replied.

"Thank you." Kid nodded and made his way up the stairs.

As he continued through the house the number of officers grew until he reached the third door on the right of the second floor. The door of the tiny flat was wide open and Kid noted five or six officers in the living room taking photographs, samples and notes. In the centre of the room a tall woman, dark hair scraped back in a ponytail, was signing something before handing a clipboard to another officer.

"Do one last DNA scrape then bag him up." she said. "The DI should be here soon and he'll want to see the victim before we move anything." Kid allowed his lips to quirk up into a smile.

"Thank you very much Tsubaki, I appreciate it." he said finally making his presence known. The doctor turned at the sound of his voice and smiled warmly.

"Good morning Kid." she greeted.

"So what have we got here then?" Kid asked. He was too tired, wet and irritable to make small talk but Tsubaki had known him long enough to realise that.

"Twenty-six year old Caucasian male; six foot four, approximately ten and a half stone," Tsubaki reeled off leading Kid into the flat's only bedroom. "found dead in his bedroom by a female friend, his throat slit and chest sliced open."

"Booty call?" Kid asked.

"Probably." Tsubaki replied.

"Third part involvement?"

"Most definitely." Tsubaki stated.

"How so?" Kid asked taking a glance around the room before looking at the body.

"If you take a look at the chest cavity," Tsubaki stated kneeling down beside the body. "not only is the chest open but the sternum has been shattered as well and, looking at the girl who found him, she wouldn't have anywhere near the amount of strength needed to be able to do that." Kid's jaw clenched and his lips quirked sceptically.

"Until proven otherwise, she's still a suspect." he stated. "Even if she didn't enact the murder she could still have organised its orchestration."

"You're the boss," Tsubaki replied getting to her feet. "I just examine the bodies."

"But you tell me everything I need to know." Kid chuckled. Tsubaki smiled and let out a soft exhale of laughter. "Is there anything else I need to know for now?"

"Well," Tsubaki drew the word out as she thought. "it may be something and it may be nothing but it's definitely worth noting."

"What is it?" Kid asked his interest piqued. Tsubaki kneeled down next to the body again and moved the victim's right arm so that the forearm was facing upwards. Kid squatted down next to her and saw a thick black arrow with what appeared to be a snake twined around it drawn in some kind of strange black ink. "What the hell?"

"I can't say for definite until I've been able to analyse a sample but it looks like blood, except it's black and has the consistency or tar, but it's certainly something."

"A calling card?"

"I would say so."

"Tsubaki are you saying that we may have the beginnings of a serial murderer on our hands?" Kid asked as they both got to their feel. Tsubaki shrugged.

"Like I said: you're the boss, I just examine the bodies." Before Kid could reply one of the other officers poked his head around the door.

"Dr Nakatsukasa, you're needed in the bathroom." he stated before leaving.

"I'll talk to you more later Kid." Tsubaki said before following the officer out of the room.

Once she had disappeared Kid sighed and gave his eyes a rub with his thumb and middle finger, pinching the bridge of his nose. If Tsubaki was right and this was a serial killer's calling card then this was not going to be the simple run-of-the-mill murder case he had hoped for when he arrived.


	2. Tense Reunions

**Hey guys :D I was originally going to do this as a weekly thing but I decided to update slightly quicker cause I really enjoy this story and you guys seem to as well :D just to clarify (as I have had a couple of people asking) this is primarily a yaoi story but if you'd prefer Crona as a girl feel free to Mind Edit haha anyway enough from me...**

Kid rubbed his eyes and drained the last of his fourth cup of coffee in the last two and a half hours before turning his attention back to the screen in front of him. The sun had been creeping over the horizon by the time he had finally left the murder scene and he had gone straight to the station to type up his findings.

Ever since Tsubaki had mentioned it Kid had been fixating on the mark on the victim's arm. He was sure that he had never seen it before but there was something familiar about it. His obsessive tendencies had started to creep through and he began pulling up photographs of recent murder victims looking for any trace of it. Unfortunately everything was coming up a big fat zero and Kid was starting to flag.

In one last vain attempt to find something he opened a photograph from a file of a murder reported the previous year and there it was. One the right arm of the victim was a thick black arrow with a snake entwined around it. Immediately alert now Kid pulled up the report and began skimming through it.

Seventeen year old female of African descent; five foot six, nine stone eleven, found dead by her father with her throat slit and chest sliced open, the same mark on her forearm. Kid exhaled shakily, this was it! If he could find one more case with the same description then he had grounds to suspect a serial killer. He had to find another – the Chief wouldn't take his word on just two cases but if he had a third, then that was a different matter and he was beginning to get his second wind.

Finally after yet more searching Kid found more cases, identical to the other two. Dating as far back as four years previous with both the location and condition the victims were found in the same and the black arrow with snake entwining it was emblazoned on their right forearm were as many as eight different cases. Kid sighed, aside from the mark, location and condition of the victims, the killer didn't seem to discriminate when choosing them and there was no pattern developing between them.

He leaned back in his chair and rubbed his eyes before picking up his coffee mug and dejectedly looking at its empty contents. He sighed as he heaved himself to his feet and went over to the coffee machine, pouring himself another cup. There was still a chance that this could all be just a massive coincidence though. It certainly looked like the beginnings or a serial killer, and he was amazed that no one had picked up on this before now, but there was no connection between the victims. Still, he thought, he should at least make the Chief aware of his suspicions.

Back at his desk, fifth coffee of the day in hand, Kid picked up the phone and dialled the number for the Chief of Police. After three rings a chipper female voice answered.

"Hello Death City Police Department Chief of Police's line, Elizabeth Thompson speaking how may I help you?"

"Liz, it's Kid." he told her curtly. Why the hell was everyone he spoke to so goddamn happy today? Then again he was just irritable from the lack of sleep.

"Oh hi Kid," Liz replied, her voice dropping to its normal register." what can I do for you?"

"I need to speak to the Chief, is he in?" Kid asked flatly.

"Yeah, do you want me to put you through?" Liz asked absently and Kid was almost certain that, once she knew who was calling she had already gone back to filing her nails.

"No this is something I need to discuss with him face to face." Kid stated. "Can you tell him that I'll be there in ten minutes?"

"Sure thing, I'll see you soon." Liz sang before hanging up the phone. Kid followed suit and turned his attention back to the computer. He printed out the pages he had been looking at before downing his coffee and heading out of the office, grabbing the papers from the printer as he went.

* * *

Kid adjusted his tie and tried to fight the twitch in his right eye the overload of caffeine had caused. Every muscle in his body had tensed up as he pushed open the door of the Chief's office and saw the young woman sitting behind the reception desk, absentmindedly humming and drawing a picture of a giraffe. She looked up when she heard the door and beamed when she saw him.

"Hi Kid!" she sang happily and his jaw tightened.

"It's Detective Inspector De'Ath to you." he replied shortly. "Where's Liz?"

"She had to go out." she replied ignoring his snappy tone and turning back to her drawing.

"Fine." Kid said stiffly. God he hated Liz's annoying younger sister. He could just about tolerate the eldest of the Thompsons but he always found Patti particularly difficult to deal with. "If the Chief in?"

"Sure." Patti grinned and pressed a button on the intercom on the desk. "Hey Chief, Kid's here to see you."

"Ok," the Chief's voice sang over the crackly speaker. "send him in."

"Ok!" Patti cried beaming at Kid. "He says you can go in." Kid scowled.

"I gathered that." he replied coolly before stalking past her to the door of the Chief's inner office. He grasped the handle and took a deep breath, composing himself – he always felt tense when he was about to see the Chief.

"See you later Kid!" Patti giggled and Kid's entire body immediately tensed up. He hated the way Patti said his name – with a backhanded childish innocence lased with derision and disdain – but only he ever seemed to notice it. He chose to ignore her and opened the door, closing it behind him.

"Hey there Kiddo," the Chief beamed at him as their eyes met. "why don't you come and sit down?"

"Good morning Sir." Kid replied through clenched teeth as he went and sat down on one of the chairs in front of the desk.

"Oh come on now Kiddo do you really have to bother with 'Sir'?"

"I prefer to keep things as professional as possible while at work." Kid stated leaning back in the chair and folding his arms across his chest. "A trait I think you should consider upholding, Father." he added, putting as much emphasis as he could on referring to the Chief as 'father' all the while trying to ignore the plaque on the desk in front of him as the name 'Shina Igami De'Ath' stared accusingly back at him.

That was another reason why he hated the way that Patti said his name and, in all honesty, why he hated the name full stop. Being the son of the Chief of Police and having the same name as him had held his career back somewhat. He had had to work for years to make a name for himself and no longer be seen as just 'Kid: the Chief's son'. It was a sore spot for him and was why he was so determined to solve this case, especially if he was right and it was a serial murderer.

"Oh Kiddo you're so adorable when you're all formal like that," his father grinned, leaning forward on the desk and waving him off. "and I'd forgotten how cute those strips in your hair were." That was another constant source of annoyance – the three thick white stripes that graced the left side of his head. It infuriated him that they didn't encircle his whole head and no matter how many times he had tried to cover them up he still had three patches of hair that were lighter on only one side of his head. In the end he had just left them, decided to ignore them and resigned himself to aggravation whenever anyone mentioned them.

"Off topic Dad." Kid muttered, his jaw clenching again.

"Right, right, of course." The Chief said leaning back in his chair. "So what did you want to speak to me about?"

"Huh?" Kid blinked momentarily forgetting that it was he who had arranged this meeting in the first place. "Oh yes. I believe that the murder that took place last night is, in fact, part of a series of serial murdering's, all taking place over the last couple of years."

"How so?"

"Even though the victims don't appear to be connected, the method and brutality of their deaths was all the same, as was a mark found on each of the victim's right forearms." he explained handing over the papers he had collected. The Chief took them and studies them as he continued, "These murders all took place in the victim's homes with no sign of forced entry and I believe that if I had the chance to dig a little deeper I would find more victims exactly like this."

"Good because we certainly can't wait for another one to see if your theory is correct." The Chief stated handing the papers back to Kid.

"That was never my intention." Kid shot back irritably. "I wanted to inform you that I believed we may have the beginnings of a serial killer before I went ahead and did anything about it."

"I'm glad you did." the Chief stated leaning forward, linking his hands together on the desk again. "I spoke to Dr Nakatsukasa about last night's case, she too mentioned the 'calling card' of the killer and I was planning on putting you on the case; find out if there is any more to it but you've already done that, well done."

"So you would like me to continue this case?" Kid asked raising an eyebrow. His father always had had a bad habit of not getting to the point very quickly.

"Oh very much so." The Chief grinned.

"I'll get right on it then." Kid stated about to get to his feet.

"Hold your horses there Kiddo," the Chief raised a hand. Kid nervously sat back down. "I want you on the case but I want you to take a DCI with you."

"Why?" Kid asked indignantly. "I haven't worked with a partner for the last three years!"

"Which is precisely why I want you to re-connect with people and work with others again. You've shut yourself off from everyone for the last three years and it's not healthy." He pressed a button on the intercom on the desk. "Patti can you send the DCI in, please."

"I'm not a child, Dad, I don't need to be forced to make friends." Kid hissed as the door behind him opened and closed.

"You wanted to see me Chief?" a timid voice, that made Kid's eyes snap open at the sound, asked. Cold dread filling his stomach Kid slowly turned to face his old partner. Startled grey eyes met his and a chocked grasp fell from surprised lips. "Shina!"

"DCI Makenshi." Kid nodded formally trying not to let the sight of his old partner and lover affect his outward façade even though inside he had gone into shock.

"Ah Crona, come in!" the Chief smiled warmly. "Have a seat." Kid felt his entire body tense up as Crona brushed passed him as he sat down. He closed his eyes trying to stop the flood of memories of Crona underneath him, screaming his name and clawing at his back as they both reached their climax but Crona's proximity was making that virtually impossible. He just hoped to god he wasn't blushing.

"So what did you want to see me about Chief?" Crona asked once he was sitting. "Patti said it was urgent."

"Yes it is." the Chief said, suddenly serious, leaning forward on the desk and linking his hands in front of him. "In case you haven't heard after last night's case we may have the beginnings of a serial murderer on our hands."

"Uh I'd heard in passing but nothing definitive." Crona replied.

"Detective Inspector De'Ath has already been assigned to the case and I would like you to accompany him." the Chief continued as if he hadn't spoken.

"Me?" Crona asked in surprise.

"You two are the best Detectives the Department has," the Chief stated. "and if this is as complex a case as I think it is then you will be the only two who stand a chance at catching the culprit."

"Ok," Crona nodded slowly. "how many murders are we looking at so far?"

"Eight." Kid stated not looking at him. "Maybe more." Crona nodded again.

"Then I guess I should go get to work." he said getting to his feet. The Chief beamed.

"Wonderful, Detective Inspector De'Ath will fill you in and send you his findings." Crona nodded for a third time and got to his feet.

"Thank you Chief," he replied. "I'll got and familiarise myself with last night's murder and I'll await your message Detective Inspector."

"Ok." Kid breathed turning to watch forlornly as Crona left the room. Damn him for being so formal – it hurt to hear Crona refer to him as 'Detective Inspector' but he wouldn't have done that if Kid hadn't been so formal in the first place. As soon as the office door closed Kid rounded on his father.

"I can't work with Crona on this case!" he all but yelped, finally losing his composure.

"Why not?" the Chief asked. "You two worked fantastically together."

"But we haven't spoken in three years!" Kid replied his voice strained.

"Then you're just going to have to put that aside for the sake of the case." the Chief stated with an air of finality. Kid sighed closing his eyes with frustration; that was going to be much easier said than done.

**...well that went well...sort of. Well done Kid that was spectacularly awkward**


	3. Solid Advice Is Hard To Follow

**So here is the fall out from Kid and Crona being partnered up again; Crona ranting to his friends haha hope you're all enjoying the story so far :D**

"DCI Makenshi!" Crona yelled angrily, pacing up and down the living room, his best friend, Maka, and her husband, Soul, watching him anxiously from the sofa. "We were together for five years and all I get is 'DCI Makenshi'!?"

"Are you counting the three where you just worked together before you started fucking?" Soul asked, confused.

"Yes!" Crona cried. "I mean he could have a least looked like he felt something when he saw me! Like it actually meant something to him!"

"Maybe he was just trying to be professional in front of the Chief." Maka offered.

"But he could have at least acknowledged me!" Crona moaned angrily.

"I'm going to have to side with Crona on this one." Soul chimed in. "Regardless of how professional he wanted to appear he could have thrown him a bone at the very least."

"Exactly!" Crona gestured in Soul's direction before groaning in frustration and flopping down into the nearest available armchair putting his face in his hands. "Just some indication that he cared would have been nice and not just practically ignoring me." As he sat, fixated in his anguish, Soul and Maka exchanged a look.

"What actually happened between you two anyway?" Maka asked.

"We were partnered up when I first started working at DCPD; I guess you could say that I was shadowing him until I was confident enough to go out on my own." Crona explained. "After a couple of weeks he said he liked working with me, and we did make a really good team, and asked me if I wanted to become his permanent partner."

"So how did you go from that to…you know…?" Soul hedged.

"We were on a job out of town about three years after we met, staying in this little hotel. There was a cock up with the rooms and we ended up sharing. We went out for dinner, got a bit drunk and one thing led to another." Crona continued before sighing. "The next morning we both agreed to keep it professional at work and not tell anyone that we were together but that didn't last."

"How did you get found out?" Maka asked smirking pointedly. Crona laughed in spite of himself, knowing what she was getting at.

"No, nothing like that!" he grinned at her before turning serious again. "One of the other officers saw us at a restaurant together and the next day it was all over the station."

"That's jumping to a bit of a conclusion." Soul remarked. "I see loads of guys in restaurants together; I don't immediately assume that they're doing it."

"He saw us kissing so the conclusion was kind of already there for him." Crona stated.

"Ok so your secret's out, that's not enough of a reason to break up." Maka said, desperate to uncover the rest of the story.

"It wasn't." Crona replied. "That was only about six months after we started dating. We spent the next year and a half working together and sleeping together, as long as we kept it separate and professional then everything was fine."

"So what happened?" Maka asked eagerly. Crona sighed and looked down at his hands folded in his lap.

"I screwed up."

"How?" Soul asked after a moment's pause while both he and Maka had been waiting for him to continue.

"We were on a job on the outskirts of town; we were just about to make the arrest, when I got caught. One of the guys in the gang we were going to arrest grabbed me, held me hostage and said he'd shoot me if we didn't call off the backup." Crona told them.

"So Kid called off the back up and they got away?" Maka asked.

"Not completely." Crona explained shaking his head. "A couple of other guys that we had called for backup managed to catch them a few streets away but things weren't the same after that."

"The relationship became a liability." Soul stated.

"Essentially." Crona agreed. "Shina…I mean Kid – I really should get used to calling him that – said that he couldn't go through that again. He couldn't go through seeing my life in danger like that and not being able to do anything about it so he said that we should either stop working together or we should stop seeing each other. I pointed out that neither of those would work because…"

"Because you couldn't just stop one but not the other." Soul offered. "It would have been too hard to stop sleeping together but keep working together but the department wouldn't have been happy if you choose your relationship over your professional partnership."

"No the Chief would have flat out refused if that was the reason for breaking up 'the best double in the department'." Crona agreed. "So Kid said that because we couldn't come to a compromise we shouldn't work together anymore and we shouldn't see each other anymore."

"That doesn't make any sense!" Maka exclaimed. "Surely he should have at least tried to work it out."

"Yeah," Soul added. "didn't you get any say in this breakup either?" Crona shook his head, sighing.

"No not really; he just kind of decided that's what was going to happen and we haven't spoken in three years."

"Haven't you bumped into each other at work in that time?" Soul asked. It seemed impossible that the two of them could work in such close proximity to each other and not, at the very least, see each other in the corridors.

"To be perfectly honest I've kind of been avoiding him." Crona admitted, his ears turning a deep shade of burgundy. He was ashamed to admit that since they had broken up he had spent the first six months after that avoiding Kid and hiding out in his office whenever he heard he was passing through like a petulant teenager.

"So what are you going to do?" Maka asked. Crona shrugged.

"I don't know, I guess I'll just try and be as professional about it as possible and just get on with it for the sake of the case." he sighed.

"I'm proud of you; that's very mature." Maka said in that motherly way she always did when someone came to a conclusion she agreed with.

"Plus you can't really avoid him if you're supposed to work together." Soul added.

"That too." Maka agreed.

"What am I going to do?" Croan moaned. "I don't know how to deal with this!" Maka sighed, got off the sofa and went to put her arm on his shoulder.

"Crona, in all seriousness, are you still in love with Kid?" she asked. Crona shook his head, exhaling loudly.

"I don't know," he confessed. "I thought I was over it – I mean I haven't exactly been going out seeing other guys but I figured enough time had passed but…but when I saw him today, saw how good he looked, and I was right back where I was three years ago. I really don't know how I'm going to get through this." Maka knelt down in front of him so the two of them were eye level.

"Here's what you're going to do," she said matter-of-factly. "you're going to carry on as if nothing has happened between you two. You're going to be professional about it and do an amazing job regardless of what happened in the past. It's the only thing you can do."

"Yeah," Crona sighed. "I guess you're right."

"And if he brings it up then, if you want to say something you can do but don't give him the satisfaction of letting him know that he's affecting you." she added. "Don't let him know how much he hurt you 'cause then he's won."

"I'd hardly call this a win/lose situation." Soul chimed in sceptically.

"Oh no this is definitely a win/lose situation." Maka said turning to look at him as she spoke. "When it comes to break-ups you have to show the other person you've moved on regardless of whether you have or not because if they see you being all sad and pathetic and pinning over them then you're the loser who can't get over it and move on."

"Huh?" Soul stared at her in confusion. Maka rolled her eyes.

"Remember at uni when you and I broke up for a month and every time you went to the SU you saw me there having a good time with all my friends?" she asked, explaining. "Well that's because I knew that you were bound to be there at some point and if I ran into you I had to look like I had a life and wasn't thinking about you all the time."

"Yeah but you were." Soul countered.

"Yeah but you didn't know that." Maka replied as if that was obvious. "What I'm saying is," she continued, turning back to Crona. "you need to make him think that you don't care about the fact you're working together again and that's it's not messing your head up."

"Lie through my teeth, got it." Crona nodded humourlessly. Maka cocked her head to the side and gave him a sympathetic smile.

"Just don't give him any reason to feel sorry for you, ok?"

"Ok." Crona sighed.

"And don't spend the night looking through old photos of the two of you while listening to Celine Dion." she added.

"I wasn't going to." Crona lied. That had been exactly what he was going to do… minus the Celine Dion. Maka raised her eyebrows reproachfully – she could see right through him and Crona knew it.

"Well whatever you do just concentrate on the job tomorrow." she stated.

"Yeah it's all you can do mate." Soul agreed.

"I guess so." Crona sighed glumly. Having to work with Kid again after all this time was going to be much harder than the actual case in his opinion. He would really have to get his head in the game if he were to have any chance of keeping the past as just that.


	4. Case Officially Open

**Hey guys, just one thing I forgot to clarify at the start but Crona and Kid are going to be a little OOC in this because they're cops - they've got to have it a bit together so I've toned down their eccentricities. but they are still there. Hope you all enjoy though :)**

The next morning Crona stood in front of Kid's office, leaning against the door with his arms crossed over his chest, waiting for him to arrive. After leaving Maka and Soul's he had decided to forego his original plans of wallowing in self-pity and opted for going through the case files and there was something that was irritating him. The complete and total lack of link between the victims was driving him nuts and he was determined that he was going to find one.

On every murder case he had ever worked on there was always a link between the victims be it age, gender, ethnicity, religion or the simple fact that they had all managed to piss off the same person. If there was no link then there was no motive just mindless murder and, in Crona's experience, you didn't leave a calling card warning if you were just doing it for fun.

That was another thing that was bugging him; the mark left on each of the victims looked really familiar. Crona had no idea where he had seen it before but he would be prepared to swear blind that he had. He knew there was some meaning behind it – there had to be, it was the only thing linking the victims. Also the murderer wouldn't bother leaving the mark if it didn't mean something – it would be a complete waste of time otherwise.

Obviously this was all just speculation on his part – it was just a theory and he had no proof. The real challenge was going to be finding it – if he could find out what the mark meant then he could find his proof. That one missing piece was all he needed and it was driving him crazy. What did that goddamn mark mean and where the hell was Kid?

Crona was beginning to get testy as he glared at his watch; Kid was pushing half an hour late now! It was incredibly frustrating considering that Crona had planned to delve straight into talking about the case when he saw Kid and ignore the inevitable awkwardness but now he was more likely to fly off the handle and lecture Kid about his inability to keep time. Even when they were together Kid was always late for things – even when they left work at the same time! After all that time of constantly being kept waiting Crona was going to give him a piece of his mind but as soon as he saw Kid round the corner the lecture he had been preparing evaporated.

Kid's hair was dishevelled, his clothes were rumpled and looked like they were the same as the ones he had been wearing the previous day. That coupled with the large dark purple circles underneath his eyes indicated that he had probably been up all night for another consecutive night. When he saw Kid's haggard appearance Crona didn't have the heart to lecture him. Once they were only a few feet apart, with what looked like a great deal of effort on his part, Kid finally looked up at him.

"Good morning." he said briskly. "Sorry to have kept you, were you waiting long?"

"Not that long." Crona lied. Kid narrowed his eyes and Crona shuffled uncomfortably under his gaze – Kid always had been able to tell when he was lying. Rather than saying anything, however, Kid took his keys out of his pocket and opened the office door. Crona followed him inside and he had to smile fondly as he saw how meticulously neat and organised everything was – Kid had always been a stickler for perfection and organisation.

"Take a seat." Kid indicated the chairs next to the desk. "Coffee?"

"No thanks." Crona murmured in response as he watched Kid shakily pour what he guessed was coffee number three or four. "Um I looked over the case files last night and I'm pretty much up to speed."

"Good," Kid exhaled as he sat down behind the desk. "did you find any common denominators between the victims?"

"No," Crona shook his head. "I was looking at them for three hours and I still couldn't find any connection between them aside from the mark and the method."

"Ever seen either of them before?" Kid asked.

"No." Crona shook his head.

"Me neither." Kid admitted taking another sip of coffee.

"So where do we go from here?" Crona asked. This wasn't too bad, he thought, as long as they could keep it professional like this then they just might be able to work together.

"Well currently we're waiting on Dr Nakatsukasa to send the DNA results of the victim from the other night as there may be something the killer left by accident." Kid stated. "Then we find him, arrest him and question whether he's responsible for the other murders as well or just a copy-cat."

"And if it's not as straight forward as that?" Crona asked sceptically. Kid was certainly going out on a great deal of faith that it was all going to be that easy. Kid paused as he thought this over before taking another sip of coffee.

"We'll cross that bridge when we come to it."

"If you say so," Crona muttered under his breath. "and the plan until then?" he asked a little louder.

"Continue looking through old files to see if there's any more like this I missed the first time round." Kid replied rubbing his eyes with his thumb and middle finger, stifling a yawn.

"I can do that, why don't you go get some sleep?" Crona suggested. "You look like you've been up all night."

"I have been up all night." Kid replied absentmindedly as he began sifting through the papers on his desk.

"Then go get some sleep!" Crona exclaimed. "I can go through the case files." Kid looked up and the hard expression gracing his features softened. He opened his mouth to respond but the shrill ringing of the internal phone on his desk cut him off. After the third ring he picked it up.

"De'Ath here." he answered gruffly. "Ok…ok…ok… What's the address?" He grabbed a pen and began furiously scribbling the address down on the notepad he kept next to the phone. "Ok we'll be there in ten minutes." He put the phone down and ripped the page out of the notepad, getting to his feet.

"What's happened?" Crona asked also getting up.

"There was another murder last night." Kid explained pulling on his coat. "Same as before; same method, same mark and all the rest, although apparently there's something I really need to see."

"What does that mean?" Crona asked as they left the office."

"Don't know." Kid shrugged. "He wouldn't say any more than that."

"That sounds ominous."

"Yeah," Kid agreed. "that's why we need to get there as soon as possible."

* * *

The crime scene was almost identical to the one Kid had arrived at a few nights ago. Flashing lights, tape and officers in uniform were everywhere but this time there was the addition of a crowd of bystanders staring intently at the block of flats. Kid groaned; fantastic, an audience that's just what they needed when a body was going to be brought out in broad daylight.

"Come on, let's go." he said and Crona nodded. The pair then began to fight their way through the small hoard of people all babbling excitedly about what they through was happening inside. It disgusted Kid somewhat that people could be so callous at a crime scene – someone had died in there for crying out loud and they were acting like it was the concluding episode of a TV soap opera. When they finally reached the front Kid lifted the police tape and was about to step under it when a hand from the crowd grabbed the back of his jacket.

"Hey what's the big idea?" the obnoxious assailant yelled. "We all wanna see and I was here first so get to the back!" Crona saw Kid's shoulders tense before he turned round to glare at the man addressing him, pulling out his badge.

"Detective Inspector De'Ath." he stated flatly. "I am assigned to this case and I can assure you that there is nothing to see here so I suggest you return to your houses."

"I ain't going anywhere." the man snarled back. "I don't care who you are." Kid simply raised an eyebrow before, quick as a flash, his hand delved into an inside pocket of his jacket. He drew one of his guns, cocked it and pointed it directly at the man's temple.

"I said return to your homes." Kid growled. The man let out a startled yelp and stumbled back, tripping over his own feet in the process and falling onto his backside.

"Ok I'm going!" he squeaked scrambling back to his feet before running off. As he retreated the rest of the crowd began to back away and disperse Kid slipped the gun back into his jacket before turning to the flat.

"Don't you think that was a bit of an over-reaction?" Crona asked as they began to make their way up the stairs to the door.

"He was pissing me off." Kid snapped.

"Whatever you say." Crona chuckled.

"There wouldn't be a crowd if Constable Ford had done his job properly." Kid replied raising his voice as soon as they were in earshot of the bespectacled man in question.

"I put the cordon up and told them to go what more did you want me to do?" he snapped turning to glare at Kid.

"I expect you to keep a crime scene like this clear, Ox!" Kid retorted. "We can't have pictures of the victims getting leaked to the press yet otherwise they'll have a field day."

"I did the best I could." Ox growled. "Or would you rather I took your approach; charging in, all guns blazing and threatening random members of the public." Kid opened his mouth to retort, his face like thunder, before Crona intervened, stepping between them.

"Gentlemen is this really the time or place?" he asked. "Can you show us the victim, please." he added before either of them could make a snappy comeback.

"Sure," Ox muttered. "she's through here." Kid and Crona followed him through the victim's flat to a door they both assumed led to the bedroom.

"Why is the door closed?" Kid asked suspiciously.

"Once we saw what was inside we thought it would be best if we waited for you to arrive." Ox replied.

"How very cryptic." Kid stated scathingly. "You said over the phone there was something that I needed to see, I presume it's in there." Ox nodded, refusing to say anymore on the subject. With a slightly shaking hand Kid grasped the handle and apprehensively opened the door.

The inside of the room was very neat and organised; the books on the shelves were in alphabetical order by author, the only lose clothing that wasn't on a hanger was meticulously folded and placed on a chair in the corner and every trinket seemed to have been placed in a certain way that added to the aesthetic of the room. In a way Kid found it rather beautiful and, if there hadn't been a bloody, open corpse in the centre, it would have been as tidy as his room (not that he had actually spent much time there recently).

All in all the room looked exactly like the kind of bedroom the victim would have, judging by the woman in each one of the photographs scattered around. It also looked exactly like each and every one of the other murder scenes; the body was in the exact same place and condition with the exact same mark.

Kid took a step into the room and it still looked exactly the same as all the other crime scenes. He turned to look at Ox over his shoulder to chide him for being so melodramatic and that was when he saw it. Scrawled across the wall in large letters, slowly dripping down to the floor and written in a black substance that looked like a cross between blood and tar was a single sentence.

"Welcome to the show Detective Inspector De'Ath." Crona murmured from behind him. Kid turned to face him, his jaw slack and his skin white; whatever he had been expecting it wasn't that. Kid turned back to stare at the writing. This unsettled him greatly; the killer knew who he was and that he was working on the case. So what else did they know?

"Now you can see why we left it as we found it till you got here." Ox stated from the doorway but Kid barely registered him. His mind was racing, trying to think of how the killer could possibly know him. Had they seen him the other night? Were they stalking him? Was there someone from the department relaying information to them? Kid was drowning in these thoughts unable to register the rest of the world until he felt a gentle hand on his shoulder.

"Shina?" Crona's voice was barely above a whisper but it seemed to bring Kid back to himself.

"Bag up the body." he stated turning to face both of them, his face still white but his composure returned to normal. He began making his way back to the flat's entrance, Crona and Ox following him. "Get pictures of both the body and the writing and take scrapings of the substance. We're more likely to find out what it is and get a DNA match than we are from the mark on the arm; I'm certain they're the same substance. Send them to Dr Nakatsukasa and get a clean-up crew in here – I want the place returned to normal as fast as possible. No crowds, no press, no nothing. You got that Ox?"

"Ok." Ox nodded signalling a couple of officers who had been floating around over. "What are you going to do?" Kid looked to Crona.

"We're going to get some more information." he stated. "The kind we can't get from old case files."

"Meaning?" Ox asked. Crona caught the look in Kid's eye and realised what he meant.

"We're going to hit the streets." he grinned and Kid allowed himself to grin back.

**Oh Kid you're so grumpy when you're tired**


	5. The Word On The Street

**Hey guys, another update for your weekend :D I will get around to replying to your reviews - I've been super busy as of late - but thank you all so much for your reviews, I'm really glad you're enjoying the story 3**

The Star Clan: the most feared and hated gang in all of Death City and the cause of the vast majority of petty crimes and misdemeanours and Kid's worst nightmare. Unfortunately for him the only way to get information about the goings on on the streets was to question a member of the Star Clan and they weren't widely known for being particularly helpful. There was only one member who it was possible to get anything out of and he was incredibly uncooperative. Why the hell had they thought this was a good idea, Kid wondered as he and Crona made their way over to a group of them leaning against a wall, smoking and drinking from unmarked cans.

"Black*Star." he called as they got closer. The youngest of the group, a hard faced teenager of seventeen at the oldest with a shock of bright blue hair spiked up into the shape of a star, looked up. He rolled his eyes when he saw Kid and flicked his cigarette away, exhaling a plume of grey smoke as he stepped forward.

"What?" he asked irritably.

"We need to ask you a couple of questions." Kid stated, flashing his badge. Not that any of them needed it – Kid was well known by the Star Clan having arrested most of them on one occasion or another.

"I haven't done anything." Black*Star growled.

"Really?" Kid asked sceptically raising an eyebrow. He shot Crona a smirk and he grinned back before pulling a small note book out of his pocket.

"Three cases of being drunk and disorderly, four muggings, shop lifting, drug dealing, fighting, staging illegal fights and urinating in public." Crona listed still grinning. "Shall I go on?"

"I've done my time." Black*Star snapped. "You ain't got nothing on me."

"Really?" Crona asked using a tone similar to Kid's. "Because these all took place in the last three weeks."

"Ah fuck." Black*Star muttered glaring at the floor.

"How about you answer a couple of our question and we can make this list go away?" Kid asked smirking; with the promise of that he would tell them anything and everything.

"That's blackmail." Black*Star stated.

"If you want to get technical, yes." Kid smirked. "So how about it? You give us the information we want and we make your list of little misdemeanours go away."

"I ain't telling you shit, Nark." Black*Star sneered pushing his face up into Kid's and he snapped. He grabbed the collar of Black*Star's shirt and pulled him even closer, so their noses were almost touching.

"Listen here, you little shit, I can put you away for the next three years with all the dirt I've got on you so I suggest you start talking!" he snarled.

"Fuck you! This is blackmail!" Black*Star spat. "You send me down; I'll tell your chief about this and get you suspended!"

"And he's going to believe the word of a bratty little street punk over me?"

"Why don't you go fuck yourself you cu…"

"Ok, ok, ok that's enough!" Crona yelled hurriedly getting between the two of them and prizing them apart before the situation got any more out of hand. "Let's all just cool off a bit; there's no need to get nasty."

"Tell him that!" Black*Star yelled gesturing at Kid over Crona's shoulder.

"Listen forget the list, forget blackmail, just give us whatever information you have and that will be the end of it. You keep your nose clean, we won't give you any hassle and everyone goes home happy." Crona said softly looking directly into Black*Star's eyes. "What do you say Lesley?"

"Don't call me that in front of the guys!" Black*Star whined casting a glance over his shoulder at his snickering gang mates – he was never going to hear the end of that.

"Ok Black*Star," Crona smiled kindly. "just tell us what you know." Black*Star's jaw tensed as he weighed up his options before sighing and looking up at both Crona and Kid.

"I don't know a lot – I don't really know anything – but," he lowered his voice for emphasis. "the word on the street is that there's a guy going round killing people. There's a reason for it, not just fun, but I don't know what, all I know is that he kills people by slicing them open."

"That sounds like our guy." Crona murmured sharing a look with Kid. "Can you tell us anything else about him?"

"All I know is he calls himself 'The Demon Sword Ragnarok'," Black*Star told them. "cause he kills people using a giant mother-fucking sword."

"Anything else?" Kid asked after a pause.

"That's everything I know." Black*Star shrugged.

"Thank you." Crona smiled warmly as he slipped his notebook back into his pocket. "Will you let us know if you hear anything else?" Black*Star scoffed.

"Whatever, I ain't no grass." And with that he went back to the rest of his gang. Without a word Kid and Crona made their way back to the car.

"That was a waste of time." Kid snapped as he pulled the keys out of his pocket. "He didn't tell us anything we didn't already know."

"Not true." Crona countered. "We have a name now; that's a start if nothing else."

"And that's only going to get us so far." Kid snapped irritably, opening the car door. Crona shook his head and rolled his eyes as they both got in, a gesture that Kid saw. "What?" he asked irritably as soon as they were inside.

"Nothing." Crona lied closing the passenger's side door.

"No if you've got something to say then, by all means, say it." Kid said through clenched teeth, switching the ignition on.

"That's the third time you've nearly lost it with someone today." Crona stated.

"What's your point Crona?"

"That you only get this pissy with people when you're tired. I mean you're not exactly a social butterfly anyway but it gets worse when you stay up all night working. Why don't you get some sleep?"

"I know my own limits," Kid snapped. "and we have work to do."

"I can do that." Crona told him. "You get some sleep when we get back, you can't do anything when you're tired."

"I don't need you babying me." Kid snapped again.

"Have you ever considered anger management?" Crona asked smirking triumphantly. Kid glared into the rear view mirror, his jaw clenching.

"Shut up."

"Witty." Crona laughed. "Now will you get some sleep when we get back?"

"Fine." Kid relented pouting childishly and fixing his attention on the road in front of him.

**Oh Kid, maybe you should consider the anger management :p**


	6. The Writing's On The Wall

**So we're getting into the actual case stuff now and I hope I'm doing that part of the story justice (as all I know I have learnt from Law and Order) hope you enjoy this chapter anyway and from the previous chapter yes Black*Star's real name is Lesley XD**

Crona groaned softly and rubbed his eyes, the light from the computer screen still burning his eyes. This was harder than he had originally thought it was going to be. After he had sifted through all the information they had gathered he had been searching for any sign of someone who went by the name of 'The Demon Sword Ragnarok'. That meant that, whoever this person was, this was their first offence or they had previously gone by a different name. Either way it was going to be difficult.

He cast a glance over his shoulder into the far corner of the office where Kid was sleeping soundly on the sofa. Damn, this was harder than he thought; why did he have to look so cute when he was asleep? It had taken a lot of convincing to actually get him to agree to get some sleep but finally Crona had beaten him down and seeing him lying there brought back memories of all the nights they had spent together three years ago.

Crona shook himself reproachfully and turned his attention back to the screen, he needed to focus. His eyes scanned the next report before he leaned back in his chair with a sight. This was useless; so far all they had to go on was a couple of crime scenes and the word of a street punk. It was hardly a whole lot of hard evidence.

A shrill ringing sprang to life next to him and Crona grabbed the phone before it could wake Kid. He let out another sigh as he lifted the phone to his ear.

"DCI Makenshi." he answered.

"Oh hi Crona," Tsubaki greeted him sounding surprised. "I didn't expect you to pick up. Is Kid around?"

"He's…out on an errand at the moment can I take a message?" he asked hurriedly covering his lie. It wouldn't be seen as professional if the leading Inspector on the case was found out to be sleeping on the job.

"You're on the 'Slice and Dice Case' too aren't you?" Tsubaki asked.

"'Slice and Dice'?"

"Blame Stein," she laughed. "he's having a field day with this one."

"I'll bet," Crona laughed humourlessly, pushing his unruly hair out of his eyes. "but yes, I am on 'Slice and Dice'."

"Good then I can tell you this too; we got the results back from the tests we did on the black substance and it's definitely blood." she told him. "We need to do some DNA tests to determine whose but it is definitely blood."

"Well that's a start." Crona muttered.

"Funny thing is what makes it black and like tar isn't something it's been mixed with externally, it's something internal."

"How's that even possible?"

"It's a chemical narcotic that is injected into the veins called Magnalithodioxide."

"'Magnalithodioxide?' What does it do?" Crona asked as he jotted the name down on a scrap piece of paper.

"Its street name is 'Keshin'. It gives the user a sense of abject power, it supresses fear and nullifies pain receptors. This means the user can pretty much do anything they want and they won't feel a thing, it usually leads to heroin or cocaine addictions."

"So it's a gateway drug?"

"Mostly," Tsubaki agreed. "but if you take too much the results can be far worse than ODing and dying."

"So even dealers are reluctant to touch it then." Crona mused.

"Pretty much. I've been told they pass out two hits to any one person then immediately hook them on something else." she stated. "At least that's what I got when I tested White*Star after he was caught with it."

"You said the side effects were much worse than ODing and dying." Crona said after a pause. "What did you mean?"

"Were you here when the 'Keshin Case' was ongoing?" Tsubaki asked.

"I don't think so."

"That might have been before you got here, I'm going back about eight/nine years now."

"Yeah that was before I arrived." Crona stated. "Why?"

"About ten years ago a chemistry student named Asura formulated his own narcotic; the kind that would stop pain and repress fear – a drug that could effectively make you a god." Tsubaki told him. "The compound was called Magnalithodioxide but he called it 'Keshin'. He used so much of it it turned his blood into tar and shattered his mind. Eventually the drug wasn't enough for him :- to keep that feeling of power he started taking the power of others."

"Meaning?"

"Meaning he started killing people." she explained. "His mind became so unstable he didn't just kill; he cut out his victims hearts and kept them in a sack made of his own skin. By the time he was arrested he had seventeen."

"Fuck!" Crona breathed. "Seventeen!"

"Yeah and if this guy's blood is this black he's been using Keshin for a while."

"Meaning someone is trying to create another one of those psycho." Crona stated. "To get your hands on that much they had to have been planning this a while, question is why?"

"That's for you to work out." Tsubaki stated. "I just run the tests and look at the bodies."

"Fair point." Crona chuckled. "Thanks Tsubaki, will you let me know when the DNA results come in?"

"Sure thing."

"Thanks I'll speak to you later."

"Crona," Tsubaki began just before he put the phone down. "if this guy is turning into the next Asura he's going to be incredibly dangerous. Please be careful…both of you."

"Don't worry we will." Crona assured her before putting the phone down. He let out a shaky breath; seventeen hearts in a bag made of his own skin! If the killer they were looking for was turning into the same kind of thing then…Tsubaki was right, this was going to be dangerous. A groan from behind him made him look round. Kid was sitting up, rubbing his eyes. "Hey," he tried to sound cheerful. "you're awake."

"How long was I out for?" Kid asked. Crona glanced at his watch.

"Not long." he replied. "Half an hour maybe."

"Who was that on the phone?" Kid asked still a little sleepily. He doesn't miss a trick, Crona thought smiling wistfully.

"Tsubaki." he told him. "She said the stuff on the wall if definitely blood but it's blood that contains large quantities of Magnalithodioxide."

"Shit!" Kid exclaimed immediately alert. "How much?"

"Enough to make it look like tar." Cron shrugged, he didn't know how much that actually was but, by the sound of it, any quantity over 'traces' was enough. Kid sighed and rubbed his face.

"Not another one." he muttered.

"Are you talking about the 'Keshin Case'?" Crona asked.

"How did you…?"

"Tsubaki told me."

"Right." Kid nodded. "Yes I am talking about the 'Keshin Case'."

"Did you work on it?" Crona asked. Kid shook his head.

"No I'd only just joined the Force; I was just a Deputy Officer at that point," he replied. "the 'Keshin Case' was one my father took and he worked on it alone."

"Wow! That bad?" Crona asked. It had to be if the Chief was taking the case and not allowing anyone else to work on it.

"Yeah. I really hope we don't have another one of those on our hands." Kid said heaving himself to his feet and making his way over to Crona. He leaned against the back of Crona's chair and looked at the computer screen. "What else have we got?"

"Big fat zero." Crona sighed.

"Guess we'll just have to wait for the DNA results to come in." Kid stated as the phone rang a second time. Crona picked it up without thinking, forgetting that it was Kid's phone.

"DCI Makenshi." he answered before suddenly remembering. He looked up at Kid's unimpressed face and mouthed 'sorry' up at him.

"Crona?" Ox asked sounding confused. "Where's Kid?"

"He's right here." Crona replied sheepishly and handed Kid the phone. Kid mouthed 'thank you' looking irritable before putting the phone to his ear.

"De'Ath." he answered. "Another one? Jesus he's going all out today. …Yeah we'll be there in about ten minutes."

"Another one?" Crons asked as he put the phone down.

"Yep," Kid stated. "grab your gun, all bets are off."

* * *

"Good, no crowd." Kid muttered as they pulled up in front of the crime scene. "Ox did his job properly this time."

"He hasn't exactly put up much of a cordon though." Crona pointed out. Kid grimaced in agreement.

"True but if there's no one here then at least we don't have to worry about this getting leaked to the press." he replied.

"Maybe they heard about your outburst this morning and didn't want to risk it." Crona chuckled as they got out of the car in unison and made their way over to the building's entrance.

"Shut up." Kid growled. Crona simply laughed again as he followed Kid inside.

The flat's interior was much the same as all the other crime scenes they had encountered so far: police officers, forensic anthropologists and photographers were dotted around everywhere, their numbers increasing in volume around the victim's body. This time, however, the victim wasn't in the bedroom, like all the other's had been, but in the middle of the living room. Kid immediately began to scan the body for any other differences but he couldn't see any immediately; the mark was there and the chest was sliced open. Nothing out of the ordinary aside from the location.

"What have we got Ox?" he asked.

"Same as usual; victim's chest sliced open and snake arrow mark on the arm drawn in the drug blood." Ox replied. Tsubaki must filled him in on the 'Keshin' blood too, Kid thought.

"And the victim?" Crona asked.

"Caucasian female, early twenties, 5'11, eight weeks pregnant." Ox stated clinically reading from his notebook.

"Do you think she knew?" Crona asked. Ox shrugged non-committedly.

"Don't know." he replied. "This may interest you though, as well as another note on the wall in the bedroom there's evidence of a struggle."

"Really?" Kid asked suddenly alert. This was definitely something new." "How so?"

"Multiple fractures to her left arm and wrist and two broken fingers on her right hand." Ox told him. "There's also the evidence of a couple of broken glasses she most likely threw at him and a broken table lamp that probably fell in the scuffle. Obviously we would have to get more information before we can know that officially."

"You said there was another note in the bedroom?" Kid asked and Ox nodded. "Why leave it in the bedroom if he had already killed her out here?"

"Who knows?" Ox shrugged. "Maybe he's one of your lot and is just super OCD?" Kid's jaw tightened as he tried to stop himself throwing a punch at Ox. There was nothing wrong with being a little obsessive, especially if it was about perfecting case reports.

"It would be one explanation." Crona jumped in, immediately sensing the tension. "Everything he's done so far does suggest some sort of compulsive disorder."

"We'll take a look at this message then start clean up." Kid stated. "We know more about this guy now so there's nothing new about him we're going to get from here." He turned and made his way towards the bedroom. Crona followed distinctly hearing him muttering something along the lines of 'four-eyed prick' under his breath.

When they reached the bedroom Kid slowly pushed the door open, it creaked loudly as he did. Once the door opened both saw words written in that same black tar like blood slowly dripping down the wall and soiling the pristine bed sheets beneath it. The first time they had seen one of these messages Kid had been so shocked he hadn't been able to think for a moment but this time he almost knew what to expect.

"Nice of you to join us DCI Makenshi." Crona read the message over Kid's shoulder. "Figures; he knows who you are, he's got tabs on you so he'd know I'm helping."

"You're right." Kid agreed. "Again that's nothing new, although maybe we should start watching what we talk about when others are present."

"Probably a good idea." Crona agreed.

"We should start cleaning the place up and wait for Tsubaki to send other the DNA results."

"If we find out who he is then we can make an arrest and find out why he's killing all these people at random." Crona added as they made their way back to the living room.

"Yeah," Kid sighed running a hand through his hair. "in a case like this the only way to prevent more people being killed is to find the guy and bring him in."

"Hopefully we won't have too much longer to wait before…" Crona was cut off mid-sentence by a scream of anguish from the front door. Both of them turned to see a woman trying to push her way passed the officer in the doorway.

"Miss I'm sorry but you can't come in here, this is a crime scene." the officer stated trying to hold her back but she managed to push past him and ran into the room, tears streaming down her face. Crona reacted first and caught her before she could reach the body on the floor.

"No Blair!" she creamed struggling against Crona's hold on her, desperate to get to the body.

"Get her out of here!" Kid roared. He was fuming; Ox should have done his goddamn job properly! No one should have to see that, he thought as Crona practically dragged the woman out of the flat. He would make sure that someone paid for this.

* * *

As he had taken her down into the building's entrance the woman hadn't stopped struggling and fighting against Crona's hold on her but when they reached the small lobby she stopped, sagged against him and broke down. Unsure of how best to handle the situation Crona put his arms around her, giving her an awkward hug in an attempt to be comforting. When her sobs finally died down to shaky breath Crona pulled back slightly and leaned down so he was at her eyelevel.

"Hi I'm DCI Makenshi, what's your name?" he asked

"E…Eruka." she replied shakily.

"You've had a nasty shock, Eruka, is there anything I can get you?" he asked. Eruka shook her head, the colour draining from her face as she was able to process what she had just seen.

"I was only gone for an hour." she moaned softly. "She said she'd be ok, I didn't want to leave her alone."

"Is she your sister?"

"My friend." Eruka corrected. "I've known Blair since we were in Primary School."

"You live here with her?"

"Yeah she moved in with me a couple of months ago after she split up with her boyfriend." she replied. "She had sort of been seeing someone but I'd never met them and they were kind of stalkery."

"How do you mean?" Crona asked.

"Like calling her all the time and bugging her a lot. She said he was coming over today, I had to go out but I didn't want to leave her alone." Eruka's shoulders shook and she began to cry again. This was a development, Crona thought; this may be the beginnings of a motive. Wouldn't necessarily explain the other murders though but it was a start. He wanted to ask her everything her friend had told her about this guy but she was too in shock to recall everything and he didn't want to miss anything vital. He pulled his notebook and pen out of his pocket.

"Do you have somewhere you can stay tonight?" he asked. Eruka stared into space for a moment before shaking herself.

"Um yeah, I can stay with a friend." she replied.

"Ok." Crona smiled kindly. He jotted down his phone number, ripped the page out of the notebook and handed it to her. "This is my number, if you need anything at all just give me a ring."

"Thank you." Eruka gave him a watery smile. Crona handed her his notebook.

"If you can write down your name and number so we can get in touch with you, that would be great."

"Why would you need me?" she asked, confused.

"A bit more information about Blair's personal life and the man she was seeing." he replied. "Don't worry it's not because you're a suspect."

"Right," Eruka shook her head slightly, still trying to process what was happening. "of course." She wrote down the information and handed Crona his notebook back. "I put the address I'll most likely be staying at too."

"Thank you, that's a big help." Crona smiled at her. "Do you want me to get you some things from upstairs or do you think you're up to going back in?" Eruka exhaled shakily, her face still very pale.

"No I…should go back up." she stated but it was clear that just saying it cost a great deal of effort.

"Ok well I'm here if you need me." he replied. Eruka smiled gratefully at him and made her way over to the stairs. Crona shakily let out the breath he had been holding as he watched her go. The sooner they caught this guy the better; Crona didn't know how many more conversations like that he could endure.


	7. Doctoral Work Ethics

**Happy Sunday everyone! Hope you've all had a good week (mine was kind of arse to begin with but it's over now, yay) here's an appearance from everyone's favourite mad Professor :D**

The forensics department in the basement of Death City's Police Department was every officer and detective's least favourite place to go and it was always for the same reason: Doctor Franken Stein. It was common knowledge that one had to have a certain level of detachment and morbid fascination to work with the mangled corpses that were brought in but Stein seemed to enjoy his job just a little too much to make it unsettling. They also tended to avoid him because he was the one who performed the Entrance Physicals and that first medical exam was forever stuck in both Kid and Crona's minds.

"Do we have to do this?" Kid asked as he and Crona stood nervously outside Stein's office door.

"We need those DNA results," Crona replied trying to hide the fact that his voice was more than a little shaky. "and Tsubaki's done for the day and gone home."

"Can't we come back tomorrow when she's here?" Kid almost whined.

"No, it has to be done today." Crona stated trying to sound firm but failing miserably.

"Ok." Kid nodded setting his jaw determinedly before continuing to stare at the door in front of him and waiting. After neither of them made any movement he looked over at Crona. "Well go on then." He nodded his head in the direction of the door.

"What?" Crona asked indignantly. "I knocked last time!"

"Seriously? That was about three years ago how could you possibly know that?" Kid asked.

"Because we had this conversation last time too and I got fed up with you being a massive baby." Crona shot back. "Anyway you're the lead Detective on this case!"

"And as your superior I'm ordering you to do it." Kid said petulantly.

"Are you seriously pulling rank with me over knocking on Stein's door?" Crona asked irritably.

"What if I am?" Kid responded in kind. "Are you going to ignore a direct order from a superior?"

"When you're being an arse I will."

"Goddamn it Crona, I swear to god…"

"Shall I knock for you lads?" a deep voice from behind them asked. A shiver ran through both of them and they immediately fell silent, turning to the source of the voice. Looming over both of them, cigarette hanging between his lips and the artificial light glinting off his glasses was Stein. "Hey." he grinned.

"Dr Stein!" Crona exclaimed as a flashback of Stein standing over him as he lay shirtless on a gurney, a scalpel in hand and that same maniacal grin on his face, jumped frightening quickly to the forefront of his mind.

"Hey Crona!" Stein sang. "And Kid's here too! Nice to see the two of you working together again."

"Um…yeah." Crona muttered, his face flushing as another memory sprang to mind; this one of Stein walking in on Crona handcuffed to a low hanging light fixture, his face flushed and sweating and one of Kid's hands down his boxers. That had been another reason why Crona had avoided him like the plague for a good few months.

"So what can I do for you guys?" Stein asked ignoring Crona's sudden onslaught of bashfulness. "I'm guessing you didn't come down here for a visit."

"No." Kid stated. "Tsubaki left me a message saying that the DNA results on the Keshin blood were ready."

"We have a match yes." Stein stated.

"It sounds like there's going to be a 'but' at the end of that sentence." Crona observed. Stein shrugged lazily.

"The blood's so fucked from the exposure to Keshin it could be a false positive." he replied. "Really we're lucky we got a result at all."

"Can that happen?" Kid asked and Stein shrugged again.

"Sometimes," he stated. "depends on the condition of the sample and this guy got more drug than blood pumping through his veins."

"Well any positive is a leading start for now." Kid sighed. "Have you got them?"

"Yeah they're in the morgue." Stein replied. "I left them in there while I was working on the latest one you guys brought in."

"Is that the victim from this afternoon?" Kid asked. Stein nodded, exhaling a plume of smoke and turning to lead them down a corridor towards the mortuary.

"Shame about that one." he commented as they walked.

"Because she was pregnant?" Crona asked.

"Because she was fit." Stein corrected. "If I'd have met her at a bar I would have done anything to get in her pants!"

"A very calculating take on it." Kid stated icily.

"You have to be in this job," Stein shrugged exhaling more dark grey smoke. "otherwise it tears you apart."

"I was wondering," Crona began suddenly changing the subject before Kid could start an argument about Stein's work ethics. "as the cause of death in this case if pretty clear what do you get from performing an autopsy?"

"Victim background mostly." Stein replied handing Kid a folder that had been lying on top of en empty gurney. Kid opened it and looked at the profile.

"Mark Williamson?" he muttered showing the profile to Crona. "That name mean anything to you?"

"No." Crona shook his head.

"One thing I did learn about this one," Stein interjected. "is the guy who was the 'Baby Daddy' and the guy who killed her are two different people."

"So that rules out our motive." Kid sighed. "So we're back to square one again."

"Surely a guy like this isn't going to suddenly change motive for killing his victims," Stein observed. "so you just hoped that was the motive. You didn't actually have anything to go on."

"Well we have a name now," Crona stated. "and we can go and arrest this guy and prevent any more murders."

"Yes," Kid agreed. "the motive will come when we question him." Stein shrugged.

"If you say so, I doubt you'll get much sense out of him though." he stated.

"Why not?" Kid asked.

"Because he's probably too far gone on Keshin to understand what you're asking him never mind form coherent answers." Stein rolled his eyes as if that was obvious and exhaled more smoke. "Any idiot who looks at the drug screening results can see that."

"Fair enough." Kid replied gruffly. "Well thank you for these," he added indicating the folder he was holding. "but we should head off."

"Don't sweat it." Stein waved him off. "It was a nice challenge doing the tests seeing as I didn't have a lot to work with to begin with. Being able to do all that with a scrapping from the wall is pretty fucking good going plus I had a bet going with Tsubaki that I could do it with one sample."

"It's so good that you take pride in your work." Kid replied, his sarcasm evident in his voice.

"What can I say?" Stein grinned that eerie, toothy grin that he was so famous for. "I really love my job."

"But you became a doctor to help people, right?" Crona asked. Stein snorted with derisive laughter.

"Please, I became a doctor so I could cut people open and call it work." he stated. "Plus the free formaldehyde comes in use every now and again." Kid and Crona shared a slightly terrified look with each other that neither hoped Stein noticed.

"Right," Kid said with a sudden air of finality that suggested that the conversation was over and they should leave now. "well we really must be heading off now."

"Yeah," Crona added taking the pointed hint Kid was dropping. "criminals to arrest and everything."

"Ok you guys have fun!" Stein sang as they hurried out of the lab. "Don't forget Physicals are next month!" Those words shot straight through them as Crona frantically shut the door behind them.

They stood on the other side of the door for a moment to try and compose themselves and a shiver ran through them both. A conversation with Stein tended to have that effect on people – the involuntary need to shake it off as soon as it was over. Kid straightened his jacket and cleared his throat.

"Shall we go then?"

"Please." Crona replied quickly and they rapidly set off back upstairs, wanting to put as much distance between themselves and Stein as possible.

**Ah I want a Professor like Stein - one who tries to dissect everything that moves and falls into madness once a week 3**


	8. In Pursuit Of Death

**Hey guys me again! Sorry the title of this chapter is a bit naff I sort of ran out of ideas for chapter titles anyway hope you enjoy it, there's a bit in this that came to me while I was stuck in traffic and my reaction was the same as Kid's haha**

After two days of searching through the city's database, council records, Inland Revenue and taxes, CCTV footage and about every other angle they could possibly have thought of (including another trip to see Black*Star, much to Kid's chagrin) and there was no sign of Mark Williamson anywhere. The man referring to himself as 'The Demon Sword Ragnarok' had well and truly vanished from the radar.

When Kid finally accepted Crona's suggestion of leaving the lead at a dead-end for the time being he agreed that talking to Eruka about their latest victim might be the best way forward at the moment. So Crona had called her and arranged a meeting; somewhere a little friendlier than the Police Station so she didn't feel as if she was on trial and the three were sitting in a booth at a small restaurant in the middle of town.

"So Eruka," Kid began setting a small Dictaphone on the table between them. "what can you tell us about Blair?"

"Well…she was just Blair really." Eruka replied. "She was always really fun and excitable and happy."

"Did she have any enemies that you know of?" Kid asked. Eruka shook her head.

"Anyone you know that she'd recently fallen out with?" Crona asked.

"No," Eruka shook her head again. "Blair always tried to get along with everyone."

"So no one you can think of who could have had a grudge against her?" Kid asked.

"Well," Eruka began after a moment's thought. "her ex-boyfriend had been giving her a fair bit of grief the last couple of months."

"How so?" Kid pounced on the snippet of information despite the fact that he knew the boyfriend wasn't the murderer.

"He's been calling a lot." Eruka replied. "He asked her to meet up with him about two months ago. She told me he asked her to take him back but she told him not after how he treated her."

"What do you mean?" Crona asked.

"He had been cheating on her when they were together and one day she came home and he had locked her out of the flat, taken all her money, chucked her stuff out on the street and moved in with his new girlfriend."

"Is that when she moved in with you?" Kid asked. Eruka nodded.

"She moved into mine and I helped her out with rent and stuff as best I could until she got a job but a couple of weeks after she met up with him she started taking on more shifts and getting really worried about money."

"Did she say why?" Crona asked although he could probably guess.

"No, Eruka replied. "but I accidentally opened a letter of hers I thought was mine and found out she had taken out a loan and they were demanding payment."

"When was the loan taken out?" Kid asked.

"Just after her boyfriend kicked her out." Eruka replied before sighing. "I wish she had told me – I tried to help her out as much as I could but she never told me how bad it was." Kid looked over at Crona and both knew exactly what the other was thinking; clearly Blair had been keeping a lot from her friend.

"Did you know she was pregnant?" Kid asked turning back to Eruka.

"What?" she asked, her eyes widening.

"Blair was eight weeks pregnant when she was killed." Crona explained.

"Oh god!" Eruka moaned, her hand reaching up to clutch her forehead as she tried to take it in. The three of them sat in silence for a minute while Eruka seemed to process this new information before Crona spoke.

"Is there anything else you can tell us about Blair that could possibly help us catch the person who did this to her?" he asked. Slowly Eruka looked up from a spot on the table she had been staring at.

"There was this guy she had been sort of seeing." she said.

"Yes, you mentioned him before." Crona stated. "What was he like?"

"I don't know," Eruka replied. "I never met him I just overheard Blair on the phone with him a lot. I wasn't eavesdropping or anything," she added hastily. "it was just kind of hard not it."

"How so?" Kid asked.

"They were always arguing." Eruka stated.

"What about?" Kid asked.

"Money mostly." Eruka shrugged. "Last conversation I heard them have she was telling him that she'd have the money by the beginning of next week and there was no need for him to come over but she knew he was going to anyway."

"Did you ever see what he looked like?" Crona asked. Eruka shook her head.

"No I never even saw a photo of him." she replied. "I offered to stay with her when he came over 'cause she knew I'd heard one of their phone calls and I told her I was worried. She said she'd be fine and that she could handle herself but…" Eruka trailed off and silent tears slowly made their way down the tracks already there.

"Just one more question and then we'll let you get back to your day," Kid stated once Eruka had composed herself. "did Blair ever tell you this man's name."

"No," Eruka replied exhaling. "she never told me his name but I heard her say 'Mark' once so I guess that was his name." Kid shot Crona a pointed look who raised an eyebrow ever so slightly before reaching over and picking up the Dictaphone.

"Thank you Eruka, I think that's everything we need for now." he said and switched off the recorder. Eruka wiped her eyes and gave them a small smile.

"I just hope that all helps." she replied.

"This will be a great help." Kid assured her getting to his feet. Crona and Eruka followed suit and he held his hand out to her. "Thank you."

"Thank you Detective Inspector De'Ath, DCI Makenshi." Eruka smiled shaking first Kid's hand, then Crona's. They both nodded their thanks before the three of them departed the diner.

"So we're pretty sure not that this Mark and 'Demon Sword' Mark are the same guy." Crona stated when they were out of Eruka's earshot.

"Yep." Kid replied as he pulled his car keys out of his pocket.

"What do we do now?" Crona asked. "I mean we still have no idea where to start looking for him."

"True." Kid sighed as they reached the car. He unlocked it, opened the driver's side door and got in." I guess we should start looking at loan companies that use Sharks, we're going to find him at one of those." he added once Crona was also inside.

"Probably a good place to start." Crona sighed. Without a word Kid started the car's ignition and the radio suddenly blasted to live.

"Ooh baby do you know what that's worth, ooh heaven is a place on earth. They say in heaven love comes first; we'll make heaven a place on earth. Ooh heaven is a place on earth." filled the car and Kid turned to stare in confusion at the radio.

"Fucking Belinda Carlisle." Kid growled as the song continued.

"You chose the station," Crona laughed. "I didn't."

"I didn't choose this crap." Kid muttered. "I always have my radio tuned to Classic FM; it calms me down."

"You need it." Crona chuckled under his breath. "Hang on," he added after a moment's thought. If you didn't change it and I didn't change it then…" He looked at Kid who turned to look at him and then at the radio, his eyes widening and his jaw dropping.

"Oh shit!"

Frantically they both wrenched their doors open, scrambled out of the car and began running, trying to put as much distance between themselves and the car as possible. They only made it a couple of feet away before the car exploded, raining shrapnel and flames around them. The force knocked them both to the floor, winding Kid momentarily as he landed face down against the pavement.

"Fuck!" he coughed rolling onto his back and clutching his chest. "Someone must have rigged the car while we were in the diner. Shit! Crona are you alright? Crona?"

Crona didn't answer. He pushed himself up onto his elbows, ignoring the pain shooting through his forearms, and looking up at the alleyway directly in front of him across the road. Watching him and Kid struggling in front of the wreckage was a man dressed entirely in black. Crona locked eyes with him for a second and, even though he couldn't make out his face, he was sure that it was the man they were after. The man smirked at him before turning and running down the alleyway.

"Cover me!" he called to Kid over his shoulder before heaving himself to his feet and tearing after him.

"Crona?!" Kid called after him but Crona had already gone. Cursing under his breath Kid wrenched his two-way radio out of his jacket pocket. "Any officers in the area of Arachne Avenue DCI Makenshi and I are in pursuit of a suspect and need backup immediately." he growled into it before shoving it back inside his jacket. Trying to ignore the pain in his chest Kid pushing himself to his feet and joined the pursuit.

Despite his head-start Crona quickly caught up with his suspect. Fuelled with adrenalin he blocked out the pain shooting through his chest and limbs from his collision with the pavement and ran, solely focused on the man in front of him. He could hear Kid's footfalls slamming against the concrete behind him and hear him calling after him but he wasn't paying attention.

"Damn! This guy is fast!" Crona muttered as the man rounded a corner. As Crona followed he saw the man falter before continuing. His gaze flickered upward and he saw the mesh-wire fence at the end of the alleyway. With a final burst of speed he reached the man just as he was beginning to climb. Crona grabbed the back of his jacket and wrenched him off the fence throwing him to the floor.

Before Crona could apprehend him the man jumped to his feet and began to double back on himself but Kid was there waiting. He tackled him, wrestled him to the ground and, after a scuffle, managed to restrain him.

"Mark Williamson?" he asked pushing the man onto his front and securing his hands behind his back.

"What wants to know?" the man spat.

"Detective Inspector Shina Igami De'Ath," Kid stated as he pulled a pair of handcuffs out of his pocket and clipped them around the man's wrists. "You have the right to remain silent. Anything you say can and will be used against you in a court of law. You have the right to an attorney. If you cannot afford an attorney, one will be provided for you. Do you understand the rights I have just read to you?" The man said nothing. Kid pushed his knee into his spine. "Do you?"

"Yes." the man grunted in pain.

"With these rights in mind do you still wish to speak to me?"

"Go fuck yourself." the man snarled.

"Fair enough." Kid replied getting to his feet and dragging the man with him. He looked up and saw a group of officers running down the alleyway towards them. "Take him away boys." he told them handing the man over to them when they reached him before bending over, clutching his chest and trying to catch his breath.

"You ok?" Crona panted placing his hand on Kid's shoulder. Kid shrugged him off suddenly incredibly angry with him for running off and putting himself in danger like that.

"That was really fucking stupid, you know that." he panted. "He could have had a gun or a knife or anything." Crona's face hardened.

"At least we caught him, didn't we?" he asked angrily before stalking off after the other officers. Kid watched him go and instantly his anger transferred from Crona to himself. Even though they were no longer romantically involved he still couldn't handle the thought of Crona in danger and that over-protectiveness had always pissed Crona off.

"Fucking idiot." he cursed himself under his breath, unsure whether he was referring to Crona or himself, before heaving himself after him.

**And now they're both mad at each other...**


	9. Secrets And Revelations

**Hey guys, it's interrogation time! As I was reading this through I realised that Kid is the WORST cop in the world judging by the amount of people who have asked him if he's blackmailing or bribing them! Anyway sorry if the chapter name is a bit naff it was all I could think of :3**

Crona hated conducting interrogations. The interrogation suit was stuffy, the lights were headache inducing and there was an annoying buzzing sound from a light that hadn't been completely fixed the last time it broke that could be heard constantly. Trying to get anything out of the person being interrogated was like trying to pull blood from a stone and, more often than not, they would lash out violently and have to be restrained which was a pain. In short Crona hated interrogations and he certainly had a number of apprehensions about this one.

Mark Williamson sat on the other side of the table staring unblinkingly at them. He seemed to be completely at ease for someone who was being held for suspected murder. There was nothing in his face that betrayed any kind of emotion and this worried Crona greatly. With previous suspects there was always something – a nervous twitch, excessive sweating or over exaggerated fidgeting – but with this guy there was nothing.

Without taking his eyes off the man in front of him Kid reached over to the tape recorder attached to the wall and switched it on. He paused, waiting as the internal dials began to whir to life before clearing his throat.

"Interview 42-42-564, Detective Inspector Shina Igami De'Ath and DCI Crona Makenshi :- Mark Williamson, aka 'The Demon Sword Ragnarok; seven charges of first degree murder, attempted murder of two officers of the law and resisting arrest. Mark what do you have to say against these chargers?" he asked. Mark Williamson continued to stare at them. "Mark?" Kid asked again. "What do you have to say about all these charges against you?"

"I don't go by that name anymore." he replied gruffly after a minute.

"Then what do you go by?" Crona asked.

"I am The Demon Sword Ragnarok." he stated. Kid and Crona shared a look that said exactly what they were both thinking; if they wanted any kinds of information out of this guy they would have to play along with his game.

"Ok Ragnarok," Kid relented. "what do you have to say about the charges against you?"

"Oh they're all completely true." Ragnarok replied shrugging. Crona's gaze flickered to Kid's face and he saw the exact same confusion in his eyes.

"You seem very calm about this." he stated.

"Why wouldn't I be?" Ragnarok shrugged again. "I've done what I was supposed to do."

"And what was that exactly?" Kid asked through gritted teeth, trying not to lose his temper at the man who, clearly, felt no remorse for the people he had killed in cold blood.

"I collect people's debts." Ragnarok replied. "I am a debt collector – it's my job."

"So your job description involves murdering people?" Crona asked.

"Sometimes," Ragnarok replied giving that same non-committal shrug. "If they don't pay up."

"Does that happen a lot?" Crona asked.

"There's a lot of poor fuckers in Death City," Ragnarok smirked. "it's very rare that people actually do pay up."

"You sound like you look forward to that prospect." Kid stated. Ragnarok chuckled humourlessly.

"It makes my job that little bit more interesting." he smirked again, his eyes flashing maliciously. It was only then that both Crona and Kid truly noticed Ragnarok's eyes. There seemed to be no iris at all, the rest of his eyes were entirely tar black aside from two diagonal white lines that crossed in the centre where the pupils should have been. Crona was surprised that he hadn't noticed them before – they certainly stood out enough, it must have been an after effect of over-exposure to Keshin. He couldn't imagine those eyes being the last thing a person saw before they were hacked to death.

"It says a lot about you that you feel that murder makes your job more interesting." Kid stated.

"Sounds like you're trying to get a rise out of me Detective Inspector." Ragnarok grinned maniacally at him.

"I'm just trying to work out what kind of person you are." Kid replied evenly.

"I'm a very easy person to work out." Ragnarok shrugged.

"I don't believe that for a second." Kid replied.

"You already have a confession – I gave you that freely," Ragnarok stated after a pause. "what more do you want?"

"We want information." Kid replied.

"What if it's information that I don't want to give?" Ragnarok asked.

"I thought you might say that." Kid smirked. "It's because I have this." He pulled a small plastic bag half filled with a grainy black powder out of an inside pocket of his jacket and dropped it on the table far enough away from Ragnarok that it was just out of his reach. Crona's eyes widened.

"Where did you get that?" he hissed.

"The lab." Kid replied quietly. Crona wanted to berate him for it but they were in the middle of an interrogation and Kid wouldn't listen to him anyway. He turned back to Ragnarok to see that the composure had shattered and he was staring in wonder at the bag. He shook himself, trying to regain some of his former composure but Crona could see him still fixating on the bag.

"What's a cop doing wandering around with that much Keshin in his pocket?" Ragnarok asked.

"Have you ever felt what it's like to have Keshin withdrawal symptoms?" Kid asked ignoring him. Ragnarok didn't answer. "You feel fine for about a week, then it hits you like a ton of bricks," he continued. "You can't sleep, can't eat, can't do anything but sit and ride out the shaking and retching and that will last about three weeks. After that you've got to ride out two weeks of madness – hearing voices, having nightmares and trying to shut out an onslaught of your worst memories. Once that's over it can take up to a year for you to regain any kind of sanity again and that's the best case scenario."

"How do you know?" Ragnarok asked, his voice cracking.

"I've seen it happen." Kid replied flatly. He remembered seeing Asura's decline after he had been incarcerated – it wasn't pretty to watch and it must have been even worse to endure. Ragnarok seemed to think about this before he leaned forward, his arms folded on the table in front of him.

"So if I tell you what you want to know then you'll keep me supplied?" he asked.

"We'll wean you off it the easy way rather than let you suffer the hard way." Kid replied.

"That sounds a lot like bribery Detective Inspector De'Ath." Ragnarok smirked slightly.

"I prefer to think of it a conscientious persuasion." Kid replied returning the smirk. Ragnarok raised an eyebrow.

"Touché." he stated and leaned back in his chair. "So what do you want to know?"

"I want to know who you work for." Kid stated leaning closer to Ragnarok.

"Be more specific." Ragnarok replied.

"You said you're a debt collector," Kid began. "what company do you collect for?"

"It's a little back alley company called Cobra Banks," Ragnarok stated. "kinda shady…they'd have to be to hire someone like me." As soon as the name was out of Ragnarok's mouth Crona's eyes widened and his jaw slackened. What were the chances that this particular company was behind the string of unspeakable murders happening over town? He should have recognised the symbol, left on each of the victims and now that he realised who he was dealing with his blood began to run cold.

"So one of the pre-requisites of your job is murder?" Kid asked, breaking Crona out of his realisation and back to the interrogation. Ragnarok rolled his eyes sighing.

"We've already been over this," he stated. "I collect people's debts and if they can't pay with money then they pay by other means."

"And it doesn't bother you that many of the people you've killed had friends and families?" Crona asked. Ragnarok shrugged again.

"I'm not paid to bother, I'm paid to do my job." he replied. "That's why I was hired, I was a good candidate."

"Candidate for what?" Kid asked.

"The Keshin Program." Ragnarok replied. "My boss wanted someone who could handle a certain amount of Keshin to become the company's hired gun."

"I thought you said you were a debt collector." Kid stated.

"It's been a really long time since I've got to see a person I knew would actually be paying up." Ragnarok replied grinning maniacally.

"So your boss," Kid said again after a pause. "can you give me their name?"

"Nope, she never told me." Ragnarok replied.

"She?" Kid asked raising an eyebrow.

"Yes she." Ragnarok clarified. "I only saw her face, never found out her name."

"Why was that?" Kid asked.

"She's nuts." Ragnarok replied simply. "She's got a lot of hang ups about stuff; she's a power hungry maniac who isn't going to stop until she gets it. She doesn't particularly care about anyone or anything and she has been running a sect that has performed some of the worst crimes in Death City for the past twenty years. Then again you'd know all about that wouldn't you DCI Makenshi?" he added breaking off into a manic cackle.

Crona suddenly jumped out of his seat and slammed his hands down on the table making Ragnarok immediately fall silent. Kid stared at him in surprise and shock as the sound echoed around the room, the only other sound being Crona's heavy breathing. Wordlessly he reached over and placed his hand on the tape recorder.

"This interview is over." he stated, shutting it off.


	10. Must Be Something In The Atmosphere

**Here is the moment you've all been waiting for. I think I got all the spelling errors and grammatical mistakes but English is not my friend this morning. If you have been reading Crona as female up till this point...this may not be the chapter for you. Hope you all enjoy though :D**

"What the hell was that about back there?" Kid snapped. He was fuming; not only had Crona prematurely ended an interrogation he had walked out living Kid to clean up the mess. He was so angry he had called Ox to take Ragnarok to a holding cell while he went to confront Crona, dragging him to his office so he could have it out with him in private.

"I don't know what you're talking about." Crona replied. So he was going to play it that way was he?

"Oh really?" Kid asked sarcastically. "You just walked out in the middle of an interrogation for no reason? That isn't like you, what's going on?"

"Nothing's going on." Crona shot back stubbornly. "Now, if you're done, I've got other things I need to do." He pushed passed Kid and made his way to the office door. He began to open it but Kid was right behind him and slammed it shut, keeping his hand in place so Crona couldn't escape.

"You're not going anywhere until you tell me what's going on." he growled. "You're hiding something from me Crona and you're not leaving until you tell me what."

"I'm not hiding anything you paranoid, delusional nutcase!" Crona shouted, turning to face him. Kid's face hardened.

"Fine." he spat. In a fit of rage he pulled the keys to his office out of his pocket, locked the door then threw them across the room.

"What the hell are you doing?" Crona asked in shock.

"I know you're hiding something – I've known you long enough to know when you're lying to me." Kid replied backing Crona up against the door. "So tell me what's going on!"

"It's none of your goddamn business!" Crona growled. "You gave up the right to demand that I tell you anything when you decided that I had become a liability!"

"I never said you were a liability! I just couldn't stand seeing you get hurt." Kid explained.

"I'm perfectly capable of taking care of myself!" Crona snapped. "You don't get to decide what I can or cannot do!"

"Then just tell me why you walked out of an interrogation!" Kid demanded placing his hands on the door either side of Crona's head, caging him in. There was an angry fire in his partner's eyes and, coupled with their close proximity, Kid felt a familiar heat rising up the back of his neck. A palpable tension hung in the air and fighting the growing urge to throw all sense out the window was getting harder. Then Crona leaned in loser to his face.

"Make me." he growled petulantly and Kid's resolve snapped.

He shoved Crona back against the door and slammed their lips together in a frenzied and passionate kiss. Crona groaned as his head hit the wood and, without even thinking about it, he reached up to grab the front of Kid's jacket and pull him closer. Kid removed his hand from the door, tangled it in soft, messy, pink hair and pulled earning a delicious moan from Crona as his head was forced back and his lips fell open.

Kid then took the opportunity to plunge his tongue into Crona's mouth, exploring the familiar cavern for the first time in years. A strangled groan escaped Kid's throat as Crona's tongue stroked the underside of his and he slipped his hands inside his jacket. Tongues battled for dominance as Crona pushed Kid's jacket off his shoulders. Kid shrugged the jacket off and let it fall to the floor before one of his hands slipped into Crona's back pocket while the other embedded itself in his hair again. He squeezed a handful of luxuriously firm flesh and Crona moaned into his mouth, sinking his teeth into Kid's bottom lip.

"Fucking hell Crona." he groaned into Crona's ear once he had released Kid's lip after dragging his teeth over it. "Do you have any idea what you do to me?" To emphasise this Kid ground his fully hard erection against Crona's rapidly hardening dick.

"Shina!" Crona moaned loudly, not caring if anyone heard him. He needed this; he had needed this for the last three years and now Kid was licking, sucking, biting his collar bone making him about ready to melt.

"Fuck, Crona, I need you now." Kid practically growled slamming his head into Crona's shoulder as three years of pent up want and desire crashed down on him like a tidal wave.

"Desk…" Crona panted his hands flying up to undo the buttons on Kid's shirt.

"Ok." Kid breathed, nodding before crashing his lips against Crona's again.

Still keeping a tight hold on the back of Crona's head and backside and still keeping their lips attached, Kid pulled Crona off the door and dragged him over to his desk. He broke the kiss a little reluctantly, to sweep all the clutter adorning his desk onto the floor. The obsessive compulsive part of his brain immediately wanted to stop, retrieve it all and rearrange it to the perfect symmetrical order it had been in before. Luckily for his situation, his brain was no longer in control.

He turned to Crona, who during that short space of time had rid himself of his jacket, and grabbed hold of his belt loops. He pulled him into another searing kiss, wrapping his arms around his skinny waist and lifting him up to sit on the edge of the desk. Crona's hands immediately resumed undoing the buttons on Kid's shirt again while he placed hot, open mouthed kisses against his neck. Kid moaned leaning his head back to give Crona more room and grabbed the back of his head, pushing him closer to his skin. Once Crona had his shirt open Kid frantically scrambled out of it, throwing it to the floor before grabbing Crona and kissing him furiously again.

"Shina," Crona moaned breathily. "Please, touch me." A feral growl rippled through Kid's chest; he grabbed the front of Crona's shirt and tore it open. Buttons flew everywhere but neither seemed to care as hands roamed over heated flesh, blunt nails raked over taught skin and lips travelled down Crona's chest before a tongue swirled over one of his nipples. Crona shivered against Kid's hot tongue as he ran his hands over the tight muscles of his back. The feeling of Kid's lips on his skin was amazing and Crona didn't care if they were overheard, discovered of if he died! All he cared about was getting out of his trousers and letting Kid pound him into the desk until neither of them could breathe anymore.

Making Crona tremble by simply playing with his nipples became boring very quickly. Kid detached his lips from the stunning body in front of him and pushed him back so Crona lay, spread out in front of him. His chest was heaving, his skin slick with sweat and the tattered remains of his shirt still hanging off him – Crona looked magnificent! Kid couldn't help himself from running his hands over Crona's torso before reaching the buttons of his trousers.

"Fuck me, you're gorgeous!" Kid marvelled smirking as he bent to suck Crona's hip, a spot that had always made him particularly weak kneed. Crona moaned, sinking his teeth into his bottom lip to stifle the noise, feeling Kid's dexterous fingers undoing the buttons on his trousers. He trembled as Kid dipped his fingers into his boxers; teasing him, barely touching where Crona desperately needed him to be touching. He bucked his hips, trying to get Kid to lower his burning touch just a little more but to no avail.

Suddenly, without any warning, Kid tugged Crona's trousers and boxers down. Crona frantically kicked off his shoes so Kid could take them off completely leaving him in only the tattered remains of his shirt. He shivered as the cool air assaulted his skin but the second Kid's warm mouth engulfed his cock he no longer cared. He cried out as Kid's tongue swirled around the head of his cock before giving it a hard suck. His cries grew louder and needier and he felt his stomach contracting as Kid continued to suck him, taking him deeper into his throat.

"Shina…I'm so close…" Crona panted. Kid smirked and immediately released Crona's cock.

"I'm nowhere near done with you yet." he purred and a shiver ran throughout Crona's body. He had forgotten the kind of power that Kid had over him; it was like a magnet pulling him in and every single time he wanted more and more. It had been so difficult working alongside Kid all this time and not being able to touch him. He sat up, hastily undoing the buttons on Kid's trousers, not wanting to waste any more time with foreplay. He plunged his hand into Kid's boxers and grasped his throbbing cock, stroking it. A strangled cry sounded in Kid's throat and he gripped the edge of the desk, praying that his knees didn't give out just yet.

"Do you…have…a condom?" Crona panted between kisses.

"In the desk." Kid replied in kind. Incredibly reluctantly he prised himself away from Crona and began routing around in the desk's bottom draw. Right at the back was an almost empty of condoms; he didn't really know why he had kept them but right now he was thankful that he had. He grabbed them and a small bottle of hand lotion that would do for lubericant before returning to Crona. He flipped the cap on the lotion open and poured a generous amount onto his hand, spreading it over his fingers. He trailed a slick fingertip over Crona's erection, past his balls and down to his entrance.

Crona shuddered as Kid's finger slipped inside him. Kid smirked at the look of pure bliss on his lover's face as he began to thrust into him as deep as his hand could go. He didn't give Crona much time to adjust before he thrust in a second finger, scissoring them. Feeling Kid inside him was amazing but he needed more; Crona needed to feel Kid fill him up and pound him into oblivion.

"Shina," he panted. "please, I need you inside me." Kid smirked down at the blushing face beneath him. He pulled his fingers out, earning a whimper of protest from Crona, before taking a condom out of the box and tearing the packet open with his teeth. He rolled the latex over his length before squirting more lotion onto his hand and coating himself in it. He lined himself up with Crona's entrance and in one swift movement buried himself to the hilt inside him.

Both moaned loudly; the sensation of being filled and the tight heat encasing him was almost too much for the two of them. Kid waited for Crona to adjust – it took him a while as it had been three years since anyone had been inside him and getting used to the feeling of being so filled again wasn't easy. After what seemed like an age to both of them Crona rolled his hips up to meet Kid's. Kid took that as his cue. He pulled out of Crona to slam back in, thrusting at a furious pace; passion, lust and tension fuelling him and filling the air around them.

"Fuck!" Kid groaned all his usual composure and pride had gone out of the window and he didn't care. All he could focus on was Crona.

"Oh god, Shina!" Crona moaned his back arching off the desk as Kid grabbed his thigh, angling him so he could slam into his prostate over and over again driving him to new heights of ecstasy. His other hand, which was still coated in lotion, reached down to pump Crona's cock in time with his thrusting. Crona's tight heat engulfed him, constricting around him and practically strangling him.

"I'm going to cum." he groaned pounding harder into Crona. He just had to last out till he had made Crona cum first then he could lose himself in oblivion.

"Me too." Crona breathed reaching up to grab Kid's hip, needing to hold onto something that wasn't the desk.

"Together?" Kid panted. All Crona could do was nod in response as his orgasm ripped through him, coating his stomach in hot, sticky cum. Crona's muscles clamped around Kid's cock like a vice and he groaned, filling the condom as he came seconds later.

Panting heavily Kid heatedly kissed Crona's lips before pulling out of him. On shaky legs he managed to get to his desk chair before collapsing. He pulled off the condom and threw into the bin underneath his desk before taking Crona's hand, linking their fingers together, and pulled him over to sit on his lap. He kissed him again, this time gentler. The passion still hung in the air but the desperate need had been replaced with gentle affection.

"Wow!" Crona breathed brushing Kid's sweat soaked fringe out of his eyes.

"Yeah." Kid grinned stroking the back of Crona's neck.

"How did this even happen?" Crona asked smiling. He didn't really care either way, he was just glad that it had. Maybe in meant that there was a chance that they could go back to the way things were.

"I think we were arguing." Kid laughed shaking his head slightly. In the heat of the moment and finally giving in to what he had wanted deep down but had tried to pretend he hadn't for the past three years had made his mind draw a complete blank.

"What were we arguing about? Crona asked. There was something in the back of his mind telling him that he probably shouldn't open that door but his thoughts were too filled with Kid for him take any notice.

"Who the hell cares?" Kid grinned before leaning forward and softly kissing him again.

**Well that's one way to enjoy an afternoon at work :P**


	11. Discussing Feelings

**Well here is the fallout from Kid and Crona's escapades on the desk, hope you enjoy**

"I had sex with Kid on his desk in the middle of the afternoon!" Crona garbled as soon as the door opened. Soul blinked in complete confusion as that slowly sunk in.

"Maka's not here right now shall I get her to call you back?" he stated. Crona's face flushed scarlet.

"Oh my god, Soul, I'm so sorry!" he exclaimed as he smacked the palm of his hand to his forehead in embarrassment.

"It's fine," Soul waved him off although his look of discomfort told Crona that it was most definitely not fine. "just maybe check who answers the door before you blurt that shit out."

"Sorry." Crona said again wishing that the ground would just open up and swallow him whole.

"Do you want to come in and have a beer?" Soul asked.

"I can come back later when Maka's home or if you want just get her to call me, I don't want to be a bother." Crona replied as he understood that by 'come in and have a beer' Soul meant 'talk to me and I'll do my best not to make it uncomfortable'.

"Nah you're here now." Soul shrugged leading Crona inside. "I mean I don't need to know what goes in where or anything but I can talk about feelings and shit."

"Wow," Crona laughed softly sitting down on the sofa as Soul went to the fridge for beer. "I never thought I'd hear Soul Evans say he wants to talk about feelings."

"We're talking about your feelings here not mine so don't get used to it." Soul chuckled as he handed Crona a cold bottle of beer and sat down next to him. "So what happened?"

"Well me and Kid had just come out of an interrogation," Crona began deciding to leave out the part about him walking out of it. "then we went back to his office. We were arguing…"

"What were you arguing about?" Soul asked taking a sip of his beer.

"Case stuff." Crona replied taking a swig himself and hoping that Soul wouldn't pry any further than that. "We were arguing then I provoked him and he kissed me."

"How did you provoke him into kissing you?" Soul asked his eyebrows furrowed slightly.

"I called him a paranoid delusional nutcase." Crona replied his cheeks flushing.

"Fain enough." Soul nodded. "Whatever gets you going. So he kissed you, what did you do?"

"Nothing." Crona shrugged. "I didn't push him away or tell him to stop. He kissed me and then pretty soon we were ripping each other's clothes off and…well, you know." he tailed off picking at a corner of the label on the bottle.

"You had sex with your ex, who you're still in love with…" Soul began.

"I'm not!" Crona cut him off.

"You are still in love with him don't deny it, I can tell." Soul stated giving Crona a pointed look. Crona rolled his eyes.

"Fine."

"You had sex with your ex, who you're still in love with, on his desk in the middle of the day when we were supposed to be working and anyone could have walked in." Soul summarised.

"Pretty much." Crona replied before taking another swig. "Besides not anyone could walk in, we locked the door."

"You are such an idiot." Soul grinned.

"Yes I am."

"How was it?" Soul asked after a pause.

"Amazing." Crona smiled wistfully.

"So what happened afterwards?" Soul asked. "Please don't tell me you left immediately to come and talk to me."

"No he got called away by one of the forensic doctors so we didn't really get any time to talk about it." Crona explained.

"So what are you going to do now?"

"I don't know." Crona replied after a pregnant pause. "I guess I'll just carry on being professional and wait for him to bring it up."

"Smooth." Soul teased. "That is probably the only thing you can do though."

"Thanks Soul." Crona smiled. Soul turned to him and grinned.

"Hey what are friends for?" He held his beer bottle out, Crona clinked his against it and they both took a swig. As they were lowering their bottles the sound of keys jingling met their ears.

"I'm home!" Maka called as she pulled her keys from the lock.

"We're in here!" Soul called and seconds later Maka appeared.

"Hey Crona," she smiled. "what are you doing here?"

"We're just shooting the shit." Soul stated.

"Yeah just talking guy stuff." Crona agreed. Maka raised an eyebrow.

"Ok." she replied nodding slowly.

"Plus this one had sex with Kid in his office this afternoon." Soul grinned wickedly indicating to Crona.

"What?!" Maka exploded, her jaw dropping open in shock.

"It was just kind of a thing that happened." Crona replied shrugging nervously.

"I thought you were supposed to be giving him the cold shoulder not letting him give you a hot dicking." Maka retorted sceptically.

"Well that's one way of putting it." Soul grinned.

"Shut up Soul." Maka snapped. "How did this even happen?" Crona opened his mouth to answer but his phone ringing cut him off. He pulled it out of his pocket and answered it.

"DCI Makenshi."

"Hey Crona it's me." Kid's voice said.

"Shina," Crona tried to keep from sounding surprised. "are you ok?"

"Yeah." Kid replied. "Just got off the phone with Kim; her and Jackie have been doing some undercover work at Cobra Banks and they've got more evidence on the Big Boss that confirms what we got from Ragnarok."

"Ok," Crona nodded getting off the sofa to slowly pace the living room. "so what do you want to do now?"

"We've got enough evidence to take them into custardy so I think we should go before they find out we're onto them and try to run."

"Ok I can be back at the station in ten." Crona replied.

"Good, see you soon. Crona?" Kid began before Crona could hang up.

"Yeah?"

"This afternoon was amazing, I'm sorry I had to dash off but after this mess with the case has been sorted I'd love to take you out to dinner and talk things over." Kid said and Crona could hear the smile in his voice. A soft blush dusted his cheeks as he bit his lip.

"I'd like that." he replied turning away from the intent gazes of Soul and Maka to hide his own smile.

"Good, I'll see you soon."

"Bye." Crona hung up the phone and turned back to see Soul grinning and Maka giving him a reproachful look, her hands on her hips. She reminded him of a stern mother or teacher who was just about to tell him off.

"Please don't tell me you two are going to pretend that this afternoon never happened and carry on as you were?" she asked with a raised eyebrow.

"No," Crona laughed. "he's taking me to dinner once we've finished today's assignment." Maka narrowed her eyes.

"Just make sure he does." she reprimanded. "If he tries to hurt you again I'll pay him a visit and make it impossible for him to procreate."

"Duly noted."

**With the best of intentions (and not to reveal anything) but we all know it's not going to be as simple as that...**


	12. Complications

**Both the case and the relationship are heating up, thank you guys so much for all your support it means the world to me and I love you all 3**

Kid downed the rest of his cold coffee, making yet another mental note to finish it before it got to that stage next time, and smiled wistfully to himself. He hadn't been able to get Crona out of his head since their dalliance in his office and the encounter had only served as a reminder that he should never have walked away in the first place. His head was not on the case and he knew that was a problem – it was the reason he had ended things with Crona in the first place – but he couldn't bring himself to care.

Just the idea of him and Crona getting back together filled him with an elation he hadn't felt in so long. The thought of being with Crona again, of doing all that coupley stuff he always thought was silly, of making hot, passionate love to him was enough to wipe everything else from his mind. He was so lost in thought he didn't notice when he was no longer alone until he felt a hand on his shoulder. He looked round to see Crona smiling tentatively at him.

"Hey." he said softly, blushing slightly. Kid couldn't help the smirk that formed on his lips as his mind jumped back a few hours to Crona panting and writing in pleasure on his desk beneath him.

"Hey yourself." he replied. His eyes dropped to Crona's lips and it took every ounce of willpower not to lean forward and kiss him.

"What?" Crona asked nervously, his blush deepening, as Kid continued to stare.

"Nothing." Kid chuckled shaking his head. "It's just I really want to kiss you but I promised myself I'd be professional until after the case was over. …I really want to kiss you though."

"Oh," Crona breathed happily, his face almost scarlet now. He wanted nothing more than for Kid to lean over and kiss him too but they still had work to do and one of them had to keep their head in the game. "well maybe we should hurry up and get this case solved then."

"Yeah you're right." Kid sighed reluctantly, pushing himself off the wall. "Jackie and Kim are going to stay at Cobra a little longer before we go and make our arrest as I was thinking we could try and get a little more sense out of Ragnarok." Kid stated switching to his 'Professional Mode' as they made their way down the corridor.

"Sounds like a plan." Crona replied. "Will Jackie and Kim contact us when they're ready?"

"Yeah," Kid nodded. "hopefully sooner rather than later – I don't like the idea of them being in that place for too long."

"Plus the longer we leave it the more chance Cobra's Big Boss has to find out that we're onto them." Crona added.

"That too." Kid agreed. "Tsubaki," he greeted in surprise as she suddenly appeared at the end of the corridor, purposefully making their way towards them. "everything ok?"

"Not really." she replied as she reached them. "Where are you two going?"

"We were going to see if we could get any more sense out of Ragnarok." Kid replied eyeing her in confusion.

"Well good luck with that: he's dead." she told them.

"What?!" Crona exclaimed.

"How?" Kid asked eyebrows furrowed.

"Don't know," Tsubaki shrugged. "but I've just come from his cell; Stein's running an autopsy as we speak."

"Do they have a cause?" Crona asked.

"Well it looks like a snake bite." she replied.

"A snake bite?" Kid echoed in confusion. "How?"

"Again I don't know." Tsubaki shrugged. "There's every chance that an inside job will be suspected but I don't know anyone who would have the knowledge or the desire to get rid of him like that." Kid shook his head.

"No, I find it too hard to believe that we were unlucky enough to lose him to a snake getting into his cell after his arrest just as he was about to tell us something." he stated.

"Well Azusa's reviewing CCTV footage to rule one option out if you want to go and see her?" Tsubaki told them.

"No I won't disturb her." Kid replied hastily. The last time he had got to see Azusa while she was reviewing footage the stony faced technician had snarled at him to get out before throwing a stapler, with startling accuracy, at his head. "Can you have her call me if she finds anything?"

"Sure thing." Tsubaki smiled. "So what are you two going to do now?" Kid and Crona shared a look.

"Go scope out our final lead I guess." Crona shrugged. "I mean now that we can't get any more out of the old one."

"Yes," Kid replied solemnly. "plus we have some undercover agents and I don't want to leave them in there too long."

"Ok well good luck, I have to get back to Stein before he finishes the autopsy and starts dissecting for fun." Tsubaki rolled her eyes. "Sometimes I feel more like his carer than his co-worker." Kid chuckled.

"Have fun." he grinned. "Will you call us if you find anything?"

"Will do and guys," Tsubaki added as they turned to leave. "be careful."

"Don't worry," Crona smiled. "we always are." With a nod of recognition from each Kid and Crona turned to leave while Tsubaki turned back the way she had come." "So what do we do now?" Crona asked after a brief silence.

"We go scope out Cobra." Kid replied. "Hopefully Kim and Jackie should have something for us soon; if they have we make the arrest tonight, we can't have Cobra's boss getting wind that we're onto them."

"Ok I just need to grab something from my desk." Crona stated. "Meet you out front?"

"Sure." Kid replied a little perplexed, wondering what on earth Crona could need at a time like this. He decided not to question it, however, it had to be something important or he wouldn't be running off right before the biggest arrest of their careers.

Kid sighed: damn, this had suddenly gotten very complicated. Ragnarok's death had forced them to move a lot faster than Kid would have liked them to but there was nothing he could do about it and they would just have to deal with it. They couldn't wait any longer; if it turned out that Ragnarok had somehow been murdered then The Big Boss knew they were onto them. That meant that if Kim and Jackie were discovered they'd either be used as hostages or worse.

Kid shook those thoughts out of his head as he unlocked the car. He had to keep his mind focused and not think about what could happen. He sighed tiredly as he got in the car; when all this was over he would sleep for a week, with that sleep preferably only being interspersed with having his way with Crona again before falling back to sleep. He closed his eyes and allowed himself to indulge in that fantasy, smiling contentedly, before opening his eyes again to see Crona walking towards the car.

"Let's go." Crona said firmly as he closed the car door.

"Got what you needed?" Kid asked.

"Yep." Crona nodded slipping what was very distinctly a Taser into his jacket.

"A stun gun?" Kid asked raising an eyebrow.

"Yeah," Crona replied, his eyes firmly fixed on the Station outside. "they're not getting the luxury of having the easy way out if we have to get weapons involved. I want them to pay for what they've done."

"O…k…" Kid replied elongating the word. This was a side of Crona he rarely ever saw; hard, determined and angry. "I can't make the same promise myself." he added as he started the ignition.

"I don't expect you to." Crona replied softly, all his anger suddenly evaporating.

* * *

The monolithic form that was Cobra Banks stood out like a lit up neon sign against the run down shacks littering the expanse around it. Kid wondered how on earth he had never noticed it before, but then again that was probably because he'd never had cause to notice it until now. He absentmindedly drummed his fingers against the steering wheel as he stared up at the menacing looking building. The amount of people who walked in there and walked out without realising that they were signing their own death warrants…

"Hey," Crona's voice coupled with his warm hand enveloping his brought him back to the present. "you're thinking too much again." Kid chuckled softly.

"How could you tell?" he asked.

"Because I know you," Crona smiled softly. "and you're drumming on the steering wheel pretty hard."

"Oh," Kid blushed furiously. "sorry. OCD; I didn't realise I was doing it."

"It's ok," Crona reassured him, his voice soft and soothing (the gentle squeeze of his hand did not go unnoticed either). "you just seem nervous." Kid sighed. "I mean we have no idea what this woman is capable of – she resurrected a Keshin killer with no other purpose than getting money from people and taking out those who can't afford to pay. I mean why go that far?"

"She's probably too far gone herself to realise." Crona replied. Kid noticed the small hint of sadness in his voice and tore his gaze away from the building to look at him. Their eyes met and, before he knew what was happening, Kid had linked his fingers with Crona's and was leaning in towards his lips.

"Crona…" he breathed as their noses brushed.

"We shouldn't be doing this." Crona whispered placing his free hand on Kid's chest but not making any attempt to push him away. "We're on Assignment."

"Then think of this as me saying 'good luck'." Kid grinned.

"Good luck for what?"

"Just shut up and kiss me." Kid slipped his free hand round to cup the back of Crona's head, entwining his finger in his hair. Crona's hand on his jacket clutched the material as their lips met. The kiss was gentle, loving and Crona didn't want it to end but eventually Kid pulled away.

"What happened to waiting till the case was completed?" Crona asked smiling.

"I know I'm sorry." Kid replied smiling back. "I'm not doing a very good job of not complicating things."

"Kiss me again and I might just forgive you." Crona bit his lip playfully. Kid brushed a lock of Crona's hair behind his ear.

"How could I possibly say no to an offer like that?" he grinned before leaning in to kiss him again. This time the kiss wasn't so chased as tongues entered the fray, dancing over one another and fingers grasped tighter purchase on jacket and hair.

"Shina…" Crona panted before darting in to kiss him again. "we have to stop before we…"

"Take this to the back seat?" Kid offered between kisses.

"Oh god yes." Crona nodded barely stopping their frenzied kissing to talk. Kid groaned against his lips and was about to start the awkward toing and froing of climbing onto the back seat before his phone buzzed twice. Reluctantly he pulled away from Crona and checked his phone.

"Well I'll be damned." he muttered.

"What?" Crona asked trying to catch his breath and regain his composure.

"I just got a message from Azusa and a message from Kim," Kid stated. "both with pictures of the same person."

"What do you mean?" Crona asked. Kid handed him his phone; in the screen was a message from Kim with a grainy picture of a woman, blonde hair poking out from underneath a black hood. The message read 'Medusa Gorgon – Cobra's Big Boss.'

He flicked to the next message from Azusa; another grainy picture – this one in black and white – but definitely the same woman as the one in the photo from Kim. The message underneath read 'Screen shot from CCTV. She spoke to Ragnarok before grabbing him and injecting him with snake venom then left. Running tests on venom from autopsy and screen tests to see what was said.'

"She's got balls, I'll give her that." Kid stated as Crona handed him his phone back. "To just walk into the Police Station, straight up murder someone and walk out again."

"She's clearly been keeping tabs on us and knew no one would be around." Crona replied softly.

"I'll talk to Sid about upping security when we get back." Kid added.

"Probably a good idea." Crona mused but he clearly wasn't listening. Kid looked at the picture once more before putting his phone away.

"Medusa Gorgon." he said more to himself than to Crona. "You ever had dealings with her before?"

Crona didn't answer. He felt sick, like any sudden movement would cause him to vomit or pass out. He felt dizzy and hot too, despite the fact that it was a very cool night he felt as if he was out in the hottest part of desert. He had known. As soon as Ragnarok had started baiting him in the interrogation room he had known. He had tried to pretend it wasn't real yet plan for the worst just in case but now he would have to deal with her. He took a deep, steadying breath.

"Yeah." he replied, his voice barely above a whisper. "Yeah I have."

**Let's face it you all know where this has been going but Kid doesn't and he's in for a bit of a shock :p**


	13. Overtime At The Office

**And this is where it all starts to go down, hold on to your hats kids it's going to be a bumpy ride :D (I shouldn't be letting my brain do these ANs right now; brain has been giving me REALLY bad advise as of late)**

Kid's phone vibrated once again. He and Crona shared a look before he picked it up. On the screen flashed another message from Kim. He opened it and his heart plummeted as he saw it.

"Been discovered, need backup." Crona read the message aloud over his shoulder.

"Shit!" Kid swore under his breath. "I knew we should have just gone in, instead of waiting out here." Granted, he thought, it was also he who had stalled their entry but he had been afraid that something like this would happen.

"How do you want to do this?" Crona asked as the two of them got out of the car and purposefully strode towards the building. "Jackie and Kim could be anywhere and this place is huge."

"If they've been discovered, and most likely taken prisoner, they'll be with Gorgon; she knows we're on to her and she probably knows we're here too." Kid replied.

"More than likely." Crona agreed. "We should probably call for our own backup."

"Go ahead." Kid nodded in agreement. Crona pulled a small two-way radio out of his jacket pocket.

"This is DCI Crona Makenshi requesting backup. Detective Inspector De'Ath and I are at Cobra Banks on the corner of Mosquito Square about to attempt an arrest. Over." he said into it before clicking it off.

"Roger that." Azusa's voice crackled through the speaker. "I'll send Ox and his team over right away. Over."

"Thanks." Crona said before stuffing the radio back in his pocket and pulling out the Taser. Kid had also drawn both of his guns and he had that hard, determined look in his eyes that he always had before an arrest he knew was going to be difficult. The two of them strode up to the automatic doors which slowly slid open as they arrived.

The inside the lobby was much cleaner and brighter than the building's exterior would have led them to believe. The walls, ceilings and floor were all a brilliant white that it almost hurt to look at coupled with the brighter than usual florescent bulbs in the ceiling. It was a place that was almost too noticeable to be the hub of a major criminal organisation. At the very end of the lobby was a desk; a girl with huge breasts and a face like a mouse sat behind it. She looked up when the automatic doors pinged shut behind them and they both hastily holstered their weapons.

"Good evening gentlemen and welcome to Cobra Banks. My name is Mizune, how may I be of service?" she asked smiling brightly. Kid and Crona raised their eyebrows at each other before turning back to her.

"A little late to be running office hours, isn't it?" Kid asked sceptically.

"Not at all Sir," Mizune replied. "Here at Cobra our services run twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week. There are always those who need money and, day or night, Cobra are there to help them when they need it. Now what can I do for you gentlemen this evening?" Kid snorted humourlessly to himself, wondering how long it had taken her and every other receptionist to memorise the company script.

"We're here to see Medusa Gorgon." he stated. Dealing with Mizune felt like it could be a huge waste of time but if Medusa did have Kim and Jackie then this girl was going to be the quickest way to find her.

"Of course Sir," she replied opening up a program on the computer screen in front of her. "do you have an appointment?" Kid flashing Crona a quick smirk and in perfect symmetrical synchronisation then both drew their badges out of their jackets and flipped them open.

"I believe she's expecting us." Crona stated flatly. Mizune looked up at their badges before slowly reaching over to the intercom next to her.

"Ms Gorgon I have two police officers in the lobby to see you." she said, her voice trembling slightly.

"Wonderful," came the cool, crackling reply. "send them up please."

"You can go up." Mizune stated. "The elevator is at the end of the corridor to the left, take it to the seventeenth floor and hers is the door directly in front of you."

"Thank you for your time." Kid replied putting his badge away before turning down the corridor Mizune had pointed out, Crona following suit. Poor girl, he thought to himself, bet she's wishing she hadn't been working tonight and it's only going to get worse.

When they reached the elevator Kid pressed the button and the doors slid open instantaneously. They stepped inside, both filled with apprehension as the doors slowly slid closed. Without a word Crona pressed the button for the seventeenth floor and the lift juddered into motion. They remained silent the entire journey up; Crona too nauseous to speak and Kid too on edge until, finally the lift stopped and the door slid open.

"This is it." Crona muttered.

"You ready for this?" Kid asked.

"As I'll ever be." Crona replied. "You?"

"Yeah." Kid lied. In truth he was nervous; he had no idea what kind of person they were dealing with and what they were actually capable of but he had to remain in control. He couldn't afford to go to pieces now, not when they were so close.

They stepped out of the elevator and the doors slid closed behind them. It was quiet, almost too quiet. So far the only person they had seen had been Mizune in reception and they had heard nothing of Kim or Jackie. There was something incredibly unsettling about the whole situation and they were running out of time. Tentatively, and with a firm grip on both of his guns, Kid made his way over to the door in front of them. He grasped the handle, as best he could while still holding his weapon, and pulled the door open, his guns raised and Crona right behind him.

The inside of Medusa Gorgon's office was pitch black save a small crack of street light coming in through the shutters. With his finger still firmly on the trigger of his gun Kid felt along the wall until his hand found a light switch, He flicked it on, flooding the room in the same blinding artificial light, and directly in front of them, gagged and bound to chairs, were Kim and Jackie. Both ran over to them and began to undo their bonds.

"Kid, Crona, it's a set up!" Jackie cried once Kid had removed her gag.

"What?" he asked, confused.

"Medusa sent that message knowing you'd come; they got hold of my phone when they found out we were police." Kim said once her mouth was free.

"You need to get out of here before…" Jackie began but a loud clicking cut her off. All four of them turned to the door to see a tall, thick-set man in a black and white stripped t-shirt holding a jagged knife, lock it from the inside.

"I honestly didn't think that Death City Police Department's top two detectives would be dumb enough to fall for the oldest trick in the book but, apparently, you've proved me wrong." he said smirking. Kid jumped to his feet and instinctively raised his guns as the man took a step towards them.

"Who the hell are you?" he asked. The man didn't answer but continued to walk towards them. Kid cocked both guns.

"I wouldn't do that if I were you." the man said. Now that he was closer Kid could see that his left eye had been mutilated to look like some kind of demonic symbol and where his eyebrow should have been were tattooed the worlds 'No Future'.

"Why is that?" Crona asked also pointing the Taser at the man.

"Because I'm much faster with a knife that either of you two are with a gun." the man said, smirking. "I could take out one of these lovely girls behind you before you even have the chance to react."

"You're certainly confident about your abilities." Kid growled, glaring at him.

"Can you afford to gamble on it?" the man continued to smirk. "Now drop your weapons." Kid's jaw clenched; the son of a bitch had them cornered. With a groan of angry frustration he dropped both his guns and raised his hands in surrender. He couldn't look Crona in the eye as there was a pause before a loud thud indicated Crona's Taser also hitting the floor. The man chuckled darkly. "Good boys."

"Where's Medusa?" Kid growled, his voice betraying his anger and humiliation.

"She's waiting for you up on the roof." the man told them. "Door is over there on your left." Both Kid and Crona's eyes flickered over to the green 'Exit' sign above a fire door.

"You expect us to just waltz up there unarmed?" Kid asked sceptically.

"No," the man replied. "but I have a good way of persuading you."

Before either of them had a chance to react the man flung the jagged knife he had been holding between the two of them. A pained scream filled the room as the blade sunk into Jackie's shoulder, Kim screaming her name in horror at the same time. The man reached behind his back and pulled another knife from his belt and prepared to throw it. This time, though, Crona was quicker. With impressive speed his hand darted into his jacket, he pulled out a hand-gun and fired it.

The man screamed in pain, dropping the knife, as the bullet ripped through his thigh. As he felt to the floor clutching the bleeding wound Kid strode over to him and kicked the knife out of his reach. Crona picked one of Kid's guns up and tossed it to him where he aimed it at the man's head. Crona then hastily finished untying Kim. As soon as she was free she dated over to inspect Jackie, who was turning paler by the second.

"Jesus it's in deep." she choked out.

"Can you get it out?" Crona asked as he untied Jackie.

"Not without doing some serious damage." Kim replied before giving Jackie her full attention and lightly slapping her face to keep her conscious.

"Crona," Ox's voice crackled from the radio in his pocket. "we heard gun-fire what the hell is going on?" Crona pulled the radio from his jacket.

"Two casualties: one officer, one suspect. Get to the seventeenth floor and bring a medic. Kid and I are going after Gorgon."

"Fine but be careful." Ox told him. Crona ignored him and put the radio back in his pocket before turning to Kim.

"You ok to hold the fort while we go up?" he asked. Kim nodded.

"Whatever you need." she replied.

"Take my other gun." Kid told her as he finished securing the still whimpering man around the leg of a heavy desk. "Although he shouldn't give you any trouble." Kim nodded picking Kid's other gun up from the floor.

"It's fine Ox will be here soon." she stated. "Please be careful you two." she added.

"We'll be fine." Crona replied flatly as he retrieved his Taser and slipped both that and his gun into his jacket.

"Since when do you carry two guns around?" Kid asked as they made their way over to the fire door.

"One in each hand keeps you balanced." Crona replied still in the same flat tone, pushing the door open.

"You sound like me." Kid grinned.

"Well I learnt from the best." Crona stated humourlessly as they climbed the small set of stairs to the roof. "Are you ready for this?"

"Going to have to be aren't we." Kid replied grimly as he opened the door at the top of the stairs and they stepped out on to the roof.


	14. Maternal Instincts

**So it all comes down to this: the stand off between Kid, Crona and Cobra's Big Boss. I won't say anymore I'll just say I hope you enjoy it and thank you for reading :D**

The night air was much cooler standing on the roof of Cobra Banks than it was on the ground bellow and the wind whipped their hair about their faces as Kid and Crona looked around for any sign of life. Aside from the odd leaf floating in the wind or pigeon stirring slightly there was nothing. Crona took a couple of tentative steps forward, drawing his gun, while Kid stayed close to the door.

"Medusa Gorgon," he called out while Crona continued to search for her. "you're under arrest for the murder of Mark Williamson, aka The Demon Sword Ragnarok, and the solicitation of numerous other murders. If you come out now and co-operate we can make this much easier on you." His voice echoed slightly but once it had died out all was silent again.

"Do you think he was lying and she's skipped out and not up here at all?" Crona asked not turning to look at him.

"I don't think so." Kid replied quietly. He cast his eyes around once more. She had to be up here; they couldn't have lost her now, not when they were so close. Aside from themselves and the roosting pigeons there seemed to be no sign of life up there but Kid couldn't shake the unsettling feeling of being watched. "Maybe we should go back downstairs and…" he began.

Whatever he had been about to say was suddenly cut off by a low creaking sound accompanied by a light, feminine chuckle finished off with a loud bang as the fire door they came through slid closed, trapping them up there. Both turned abruptly at the sound, Crona pointing his gun in the direction of the door, but still there appeared to be no one there.

Suddenly, before either of them could react, Kid was spun round to face Crona, his arms restrained behind his back by a surprisingly strong grip. He saw Crona falter slightly and he stiffened as he felt hot breath ghosting over his neck. That same chuckled sounded in his ear again and he turned his head slightly to see a woman's pale face, framed by a mass of blonde hair that twisted in a spiral at the base of her throat like a rope. Her eyes were wild and her smile was manic as she fixed her attention on Crona.

"So nice to see you again Crona," she said, her voice smooth and hard like marble. "and it was so nice of you to bring a new toy for me to play with." Crona glared at her and readjusted his grip on the gun.

"You touch him and, I swear to god, I'll…" he growled.

"You'll what?" the woman laughed cutting him off as she slipped the hand not restraining him over Kid's stomach and up his chest. "Face it; you've never been able to do anything to me before."

"That was then," Crona replied still glaring. "this is now."

"Yes now you've got yourself a backbone." she hissed heartlessly. "Little late in the game for one of those, don't you think?" Crona cocked the gun.

"Let him go Medusa." he told her. Medusa ignored him, turning her attention to Kid as her hand continued to roam over his torso. Kid tried to shrink away from her touch but with her pressed right up against his back that was impossible.

"He's very handsome, isn't he?" she commented smirking. "I can see why you fell for him in the first place."

"Medusa…" Crona warned. Without breaking eye contact with him Medusa slid her hand inside Kid's jacket to where his gun was holstered.

"Now honestly," she said as if speaking to herself as she pulled it out. "I told that idiot Free to not let you bring weapons up here. Do I have to do everything myself?"

"Drop the gun Medusa." Crona said firmly. Medusa laughed and pressed the barrel of the gun against Kid's throat.

"I don't think you're really in a position to be giving me orders now, are you?" she replied before her mad smile vanished. "Now drop it or he dies." Crona didn't move. "I'm only going to say this once more: drop the gun or I'll blow his fucking skull out."

"Fuck!" Crona cursed angrily under his breath after a pause, before letting his gun clatter to the floor.

"Good boy." Medusa purred, smirking again. "Oh don't look at me like that," she added as Crona scowled at her. "you know you would never have pulled the trigger on your own mother."

"Mother?!" Kid cried in astonishment, interrupting the exchange going on around him.

"You mean you never told him?" Medusa asked with a raised eyebrow. "This is too perfect for words but yes, Crona here is my darling baby boy."

"Only when it suits you." Crona spat and there was a distinct hint of bitterness in his voice.

"Oh come now," Medusa said feigning warmth and affection. "when you came to me three years ago needing money did I turn you away?"

"And what if I hadn't been able to pay you back?" Crona asked. "Would you have had Ragnrok kill me like all those others?"

"I'm sure we'd have been able to come to an arrangement." Medusa smirked. "After all, you are my son."

In the middle of all this Kid's mind was whirling. He couldn't get his head around it; Crona – his Crona – was the son of a mad woman who had people who couldn't pay their debts brutally murdered and currently had a gun to his throat. To top it all off Crona had actually borrowed money from her; why had Crona borrowed money from her three years ago? Then it hit him. After they had broken up Crona had moved out of the flat they had been sharing and Kid had been too stubborn and petulant to ask him if he had anywhere else to live. Kid felt as if all the air had been knocked out of his lungs. He looked up at Crona who looked similarly defeated.

"I'm not armed anymore," he said quietly. "you've got what you wanted. Now, please, let him go."

"Not so fast." Medusa snarled, tightening her grip and pressing the gun barrel harder into Kid's throat. "This place is crawling with police. I want to make sure I can get away without any trouble so how about you call off your little friends and I won't pull the trigger on him."

"Crona don't!" Kid chocked out. They couldn't lose her now; he didn't care what happened to him just so long as she was arrested. Medusa chuckled against his ear.

"Quiet you!" she hissed before turning back to Crona. "It's your choice Crona: call them off or have your boyfriend's brains paint the roof?" Kid watched in defeated horror as Crona slowly pulled his radio out of his pocket.

"Constable Ford," Crona said mechanically, not taking his eyes off Medusa, and Kid was suddenly struck by how odd it was that he was referring to Ox like that. However, that might be for Medusa's benefit, he thought. "we lost the culprit. We're heading back down now, nothing to see here."

And there it was :- the coded phrase they were all taught to use in training. The code that said 'an officer is hostage and they're being used to barter freedom, I'm stalling – do not leave.' Kid's heart practically stopped as he prayed that Medusa would buy it. Finally, after much too long a pause, he felt her grip on him slacken and the gun was removed from his throat.

"Now walk away slowly and then don't move." Medusa told him firmly. "Either of you tries to follow me, I'll shoot."

Very slowly, and with the poise as if he had metal rod down his spine, Kid began to walk towards Crona. He couldn't look him in the eye; he felt humiliated and defeated. After all the time he had chastised Crona about getting held hostage and putting himself in danger and now he could have jeopardised the entire case by doing the same thing. He was so busy berating himself that he didn't hear the click of the gun cocking until it was too late.

"Shina!" Crona's voice rang in his ears as he felt him grab his shoulder and he turned to see Medusa pointing his own gun at his chest.

Time seemed to slow down as gun-fire echoed all around the rooftops. Kid stumbled backwards as he felt something warm and wet spreading across his chest and he waited for the pain to start. But it never came. His eyes widened in horrified shock as Crona slumped lifelessly against him. Tears stung his eyes as it dawned on him what had just happened.

He managed to wrench his eyes away to glare up at Medusa. Her face was also a mask of shock as she realised that he had shot the wrong person but she quickly recovered herself. She dropped the gun, turned and began to run, trying to find a way of escape. No, Kid's mind screamed into gear, she's not going to get away that easily. He plunged his hand into Crona's jacket and wrenched the Taser out, aimed it at her and fired.

The Taser hit Medusa square in the chest and she fell to the floor, writhing as electricity coursed throughout her body. Blind anger kept Kid's finger on the trigger, sending wave after wave of high voltage fury into Medusa not stopping to consider the damage he could be doing until the fire door crashing open brought him back to himself. He dropped the Taser and sank to his knees, Crona's body limp and heavy on top of his, as Ox's team flooded the roof.

Blinking away the tears Kid managed to lie Crona, as gently as he could, onto the floor. Fresh tears filled his eyes as he saw the large red blood stain slowly spreading from Crona's chest and covering his shirt. Not knowing what else to do he grabbed Crona's hand, squeezing it tightly, as Crona blinked slowly and took a shaky breath.

"Crona…" Kid's own voice sounded shaky as he ignored the world around him and focused solely on Crona.

"Shina…" Crona replied quietly, his face pale and his eyes barely focusing. "did we get her?"

"Yeah, we got her." Kid replied as hot tears began to track down his face. "Why did you do it Crona? Why did you take that bullet for me?"

"Because I couldn't stand there and watch you get hurt." Crona replied, coughing softly. Kid fiercely pressed his lips to the back of Crona's hand.

"You're going to be ok." he said with a strained voice, trying to reassure himself more than Crona. "We'll get you to a hospital and everything will be ok." Crona gave a raspy cough before taking a shuddering breath and looking Kid in the eye.

"I love you Shina." he whispered before exhaling shakily, his eyes falling closed and his hand going limp in Kid's.

"Crona!" Kid cried giving his shoulder a shake. "Crona stay with me. Somebody help me please!" he shouted at the gaggle of officers around them before turning back to Crona. "Crona please wake up, be ok, just please, don't leave me again." Kid's voice cracked and he began to sob, for the first time in years, as a medic roughly pushed him out of the way and his world fell to pieces around him.


	15. Epilogue

**So there is an 'after Crona gets shot' chapter - I wouldn't leave you hanging on like that (well I might do but not this time) there are possible spoliers for the manga in this - I haven't actually got that far in the manga but I have been led to understand that this is a thing so there we go. Hope you enjoy :D**

Slowly, and with a great deal more effort than it should have taken, Crona opened his eyes. The blinding florescent light stung his eyes, he felt dizzy even though he was lying down and his chest felt like someone was standing on it. He blinked slowly a few times, adjusting to the light, before scanning the room he was in. The tell-tale beeping of a heart monitor beside him and the uncomfortable polythene bed clothes told him that he was in a hospital and as he looked around that was confirmed.

How on earth had he ended up in hospital? His memory was hazy at best and all he could remember was kissing Kid in the car outside Cobra Banks. But the night hadn't ended there had it? They had gone inside, Jackie had gotten stabbed, he had shot someone and then they had gone up to the roof. There had been a confrontation with Medusa, Kid had found out that she was his mother, she had gone to shoot Kid but he had gotten in the way.

Piece by piece the memory came back to him but like it had happened to someone else – like it wasn't his memory. He turned his head slightly, wincing from the effort, and saw Kid sitting slumped over in a hospital chair, fast asleep. Feeling like he had just completed a triathlon Crona heaved himself up into a sitting position.

"Hey, you're awake." Maka's voice said softly. Crona's gaze darted over to the door and saw her holding two plastic cups, one steaming slightly.

"How long was I out for?" he asked. His voice sounded strange to his ears; deep and gruff from inactivity. Maka sat down in the empty seat next to his bed and handed him the non-steaming cup. He took a long gulp of water and instantly felt a little better.

"Three, maybe four days." she told him. "There was a moment, there, where it looked like you weren't going to make it. This one," she added nodding towards Kid. "hasn't left your side since you get here."

"What about when visiting hours ended?"

"When the nurse asked him to leave the first night he pulled out a gun and said he wasn't moving till you woke up." Maka told him. Crona chuckled softly.

"Yeah, that sounds about right." he murmured. Maka looked over at Kid's sleeping form then back to Crona.

"You make sure he treats you right this time." she told him. "None of this 'can't mix professional and personal' shit after you took a bullet for him."

"I don't think he's going to." Crona replied. "Before all this he had said about wanting to talk, plus I did just take a bullet for him." he added, chuckling slightly. The additional noise in the room made Kid stir and groggily open his eyes. As soon as he saw Crona sitting up in bed he leaned forward and took hold of his hand.

"Hey," he gave Crona a tired smile. "how long have you been awake?"

"Not long." Crona smiled. "I hear you've been terrifying the nurses and refusing to leave." Kid blushed furiously.

"I didn't want to leave in case you woke up." he pouted. From behind him Maka raised an eyebrow and grinned.

"I'm going to go and find your, barely old enough to practice, doctor." she stated. "Give you two a chance to talk." Kid smiled gratefully at her and she left the room leaving them in a slightly awkward silence.

"I'm in a shit-ton of trouble with the Chief." Kid announced jokingly, in an attempt to break it.

"Why?" Crona asked.

"Let' see," Kid began reeling things off, counting on his fingers. "on my watch a suspect got murdered in their cell, Jackie got stabbed, a suspect got shot, you got shot and I pumped Medusa with so much electricity I caused internal damage."

"Ok I can see why your dad would be a bit pissed." Crona grinned before they both fell into silence.

"Why didn't you tell me Crona?" Kid asked looking up at him. "Why didn't you tell me about Medusa being your mother and having to borrow money from her?"

"You, of all people, I couldn't tell." Crona sighed and gave his hand a squeeze. "I mean how can you say to your ex 'I know we broke up and I moved out but I've got no money and nowhere to live, my life is a mess'? I just couldn't bring myself to."

"So what did you do?" Kid asked.

"I borrowed some money from Medusa, paid her back as soon as I could and lived with Soul and Maka for a bit till I got back on my feet." Crona told him. "I just couldn't bear the thought of telling you and you feeling sorry for me. I know it's stupid…"

"No, I get it," Kid sighed. "but you could have told me about Medusa being your mother."

"Could I though?" Crona asked. "How would it look if one of the police department's DCIs was the son of a known criminal and never brought her in?"

"I suppose…" Kid mumbled.

"I didn't know how to deal with it and I knew when I joined up in Death City there was no way I could feel right about arresting her for petty crimes so I changed my name to 'Makenshi' and tried to avoid her as best I could." Crona explained ignoring him. "You probably think I'm a right coward now."

"Not at all." Kid replied softly. He looked down at his hands for a long time before sighing and pulling a small but thick folder from the inside of his jacket. He handed it to Crona.

"What's this?"

"Something I haven't been completely honest about either." he replied. Crona opened the folder and looked at the small square photograph of a man with shoulder length black hair, three stripes of white encircling his head.

"Asura's file?" he asked, confused.

"Read the description." Kid told him. Crona's eyes flicked over the rest of the page till he came to the 'Personal Details' section. He let out a soft gasp of surprise.

"Asura Noah De'Ath?"

"Yep, the Keshin Killer is my older brother." Kid stated bitterly. "So I guess we've both been keeping secrets from each other."

"Why didn't you tell me?" Crona asked after a long pause.

"How would it look?" Kid countered.

"Touché." Crona smiled at him. Kid returned the smile, leaned forward and laced his fingers with Crona's. They stayed silent for a moment, both wondering if they should actually voice what they were thinking. Eventually Kid opened his mouth to speak but was cut off by the appearance of a young woman, who couldn't have been older than twenty-one, in a doctor's uniform entering.

"And tell Dr Nakatsukasa to get that bespectacled dissecting freak out of my ICU!" she shouted over her shoulder before closing the door and turning to Kid and Crona. She took a chart from the tray at the end of Crona's bed and flipped it open.

"Right Crona…is it Makenshi or Gorgon? I was told two different things." she said matter-of-factly.

"It's Gorgon." Crona replied, his cheeks turning pink.

"Fantastic." she replied taking a pen out of her pocket. She clicked it, crossed something out on the chart, scribbled something else, clicked it again and put it back in her pocket before looking up at him and smiling brightly. "I'm Angela, you doctor. You gave us all a nasty scare there but surgery went well and you should be back on your feet in no time. Just promise not to do it again, ok?"

"Don't worry, I won't." Crona laughed.

"Good." Angela smiled. "Now, as you're awake, I need to run a couple more tests just to check everything's still ok before I can discharge you but if they all go well you can be home by the end of the week. Do you have someone you can stay with? 'Cause you shouldn't be on your own until the wound has completely healed to be on the safe side."

"He can stay with me." Kid piped up.

"You a family member?" Angela asked sternly, surveying him.

"I'm his fiancé." Kid told her. Angela narrowed her eyes before taking her pen out and clicking it again.

"You know how to change a spinal dressing fiancé?" she asked writing something down on Crona's chart without looking at him.

"Yes." Kid replied.

"Ok," Angela looked up, clicking her pen before returning it to her pocket. "well I'll get your tests booked in and your discharge papers sorted then I'll have a chat with you about what he needs when you get home."

"Thank you Doctor." Crona smiled, happy that he wouldn't have to spend longer than necessary stuck in hospital.

"No problem." Angela smiled before opening the door. "I thought I told you to get him out of here! He want to butcher something send him to the morgue!" she shouted, closing the door behind her.

"Sounds like Stein's causing trouble again." Kid laughed. "I told Tsubaki it was a bad idea to let him loose around live patients. What?" he asked suddenly noticing the look Crona was giving him; raised eyebrows and the hint of a grin on his lips.

"Fiancé?" he asked. Kid flushed scarlet.

"Oh…," he began. "well…"

"Detective Inspector De'Ath are you asking me to marry you?" Crona asked trying to stop himself from smiling.

"Um…that is…only if you want to." Kid hedged, looking away as his blush spread.

"What makes you think I'm taking you back?" Crona teased. Kid looked up to see him smiling and he smiled back, relieved.

"Well you did just take a bullet for me." he replied.

"Yeah that was kind of a give-away." Crona grinned. "So what does this mean for us working together?" he added after a pause.

"I think we should give it another go." Kid shrugged. "I mean we make a really good team."

"Yeah but last time…"

"It won't be like last time." Kid cut him off. "I won't be like last time as long as you promise not to jump in front of anymore guns."

"I'll try." Crona replied theatrically placing a hand over the dressing on his chest.

"So what do you say?" Kid asked hopefully. "Will you give me another chance?" Crona studied him, taking his time to answer on purpose to make Kid sweat.

"Yeah alright." he grinned feigning flippancy. Kid sighed with relief and delight before leaning over and kissing his lips. Crona could feel every bit of love and devotion Kid had for him and kissed him back with equal affection.

"I love you Crona Makenshi." Kid breathed once they parted.

"Actually it's Gorgon." Crona corrected him jokingly.

"Compromise," Kid suggested. "how about De'Ath."

"Sounds good." Crona smiled. "Shina?"

"Yeah?"

"I love you too." Crona said before kissing him again and for the first time in three years he felt like he didn't have a care in the world. As long as he and Kid were together everything would be just fine.

THE END

**There you go a lovely sugary happy ending, thank you guys so much for all your support, reviews and actually reading this as I didn't think it would be as popular as it has been. Love you all loads, until next time xx**


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